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	Former San Jose Church Elder Sent to Prison for Molesting Young Girl Mercury News [San Jose CA] March 1, 2007 http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/16813746.htm A former Jehovah's Witness elder was sentenced today in a San Jose courtroom to 12 years in state prison for the repeated molestation of a young congregant. Armando Ortiz, 36, stared intensely at the ground throughout his hearing. Ortiz gave a list of personal, financial and immigration problems that plagued him from 2001 to 2003, when he molested his friend's daughter, who was 8 to 11 years old at the time. Ortiz claimed his position as an elder in the church made it difficult to seek help for his many problems at the time of the crimes. At the time, Ortiz was living in the home of a close friend and was involved in a romantic affair with the man's wife, who was the mother of the victim. Judge Brian Walsh acknowledged Ortiz's comments but said they were nothing more than a list of excuses and said he did not hear an apology to a girl to whom Ortiz most likely caused irreparable damage. `I think that justice was done and that it was a fair sentence," Deputy District Attorney Sumerle Davis said. `It's a very unfortunate and sad situation." The victim's family has since moved out of state to `put this behind them," Davis said. Ortiz received the maximum 12-year sentence for continued sexual abuse of a child and will have to register as a sex offender.
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