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	Pastor with 'Huge' Exposure to Prison Rejects Plea Offer By Heather Nann Collins Journal Inquirer [Hartford CT] March 16, 2007 http://www.journalinquirer.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18089150&BRD=985&PAG=461&dept_id=161556&rfi=6 Despite DNA testing that a prosecutor says proves to a near certainty that Hartford preacher Modesto Reyes fathered an 11-year-old girl's child, Reyes on Thursday refused a plea deal that would have sent him to prison for 15 years. Advertisement Instead, Reyes - who is charged with multiple counts of first- and second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a child - will take his chances with a jury. It was a decision that Hartford Superior Court Judge Thomas P. Miano wanted Reyes, 52, to understand carries with it the possibility that he could be locked up for many, many years. "Your exposure to prison is huge," Miano reminded Reyes. Each of the first-degree sex charges carries a 20-year penalty, while the other sex and risk counts are 10-year felonies. Miano said that during pretrial negotiations, prosecutor Sandra Tullius had wanted a 30-year prison term for Reyes, but he thought that was high and extended the 15-year plea offer. Nevertheless, Miano said, the "nature and setting" of the complaint are certain to be aggravating factors considered by a jury. The girl, whose family attended Iglesia De Dios, the Park Street church where Reyes was pastor, has told authorities that Reyes raped her on multiple occasions between August and December 2005. The girl was 11 at the time, and gave birth to a boy when she was 12. Two court-ordered DNA tests say it is more than a 99 percent certainty that Reyes was the biological father of the child, authorities say. "In this day and age, DNA is strong evidence," Miano told Reyes. Despite that evidence, Reyes continues to maintain his innocence through his lawyer, noted Hartford attorney William T. Gerace. As at each of his previous court appearances, Reyes was greeted Thursday by more than a dozen supporters as he emerged from the lockup. Mostly women - including his wife - and some with young children, the devotees waved and blew kisses to Reyes. Some supporters clucked and muttered and shook their heads in apparent disagreement when Tullius reminded Miano of the accuser's age. After Reyes rejected the offer, Gerace filed a motion to have a third DNA test on the girl's child. Miano approved the request and set the case on the court's firm jury list. It will likely be summer before jury selection begins. Reyes remains jailed, at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield, in lieu of $750,000 bond.
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