Minister Pleads Not Guilty in Second Sexual Assault Case Involving Minor
By Tina A. Brown
Hartford Courant
December 18, 2007
http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-ctmodesto1218.artdec18,0,4249667.story
A Hartford minister awaiting sentencing for sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl who bore his child last year is also accused of impregnating a 13-year-old in 2005 and urging her to have an abortion.
The older girl, now 15, ultimately had a miscarriage, according to court documents. The younger girl gave birth in May 2006.
The 15-year-old and her mother only came forward to police in November, one month after Modesto Reyes was convicted of assaulting the younger girl. Both girls were members of his congregation Reyes, 53, is in jail with bail set at $1 million. He was scheduled to be sentenced last Friday for sexually assaulting the 11-year-old. But the sentencing was postponed after new charges were filed Friday involving the other alleged victim, including multiple counts of second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor.
Reyes, a Pentecostal minister, pleaded not guilty Monday to those charges in Superior Court in Hartford. Both cases were continued until Jan. 10.
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| Modesto Reyes |
According to an arrest warrant, Reyes inappropriately touched the older girl, identified as Jane Doe, for the first time during a day of fasting in March 2005.
Doe said that she and members of Reyes' Iglesia de Dios, Cristo Te Llama congregation were sitting on the couch watching religious videos in the basement of Reyes' home in Hartford, according to court documents. She said Reyes reached under a blanket and started cuddling and holding her hand. She didn't think anything of it because he was her pastor and had always been nice to her, according to the warrant.
Doe told police that she was surprised later when he reached under her shirt and touched her breast, according to court documents. She asked him what he was doing and he said, "He didn't know."
The following day at church services, Doe told police, Reyes apologized for "touching her breast." But he said later that "he wanted to make love to her," the court records say.
Later in spring 2005, Doe said, she and Reyes were alone in the church office on Broad Street. He told her that he was having marital problems and that he needed someone. She said he started kissing her and had intercourse with her, according to court records.
She told police that she was confused by what had happened and when she started crying, Reyes told her "not to tell anyone" and "to think of his wife and family."
Doe said that Reyes sexually assaulted her three or four times in his office. Several other times, Reyes allegedly assaulted her in the church van after he dropped off other members of his church.
When she got pregnant, the warrant says, Reyes told the teenager's mother, "You're not going to let her have the baby are you?"
The mother told police that she found his response "very strange, coming from a pastor" because "it sounded like he was advocating for Jane Doe to have an abortion," the warrant says.
In the case involving the younger girl, Reyes pleaded guilty under the Alford doctrine to charges of first-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor.
In an Alford plea, an accused does not admit guilt but acknowledges sufficient evidence exists for a conviction.
Prosecutor Sandra Tullius has said that Reyes befriended the 11-year-old in 2004 and 2005. He gave her cookies before he took her behind Bulkeley High School in a church van and sexually assaulted her in August 2005, Tullius said. Subsequent assaults also occurred in the church office during the fall of 2005. She gave birth in May 2006.
Before Friday's postponement, Reyes had faced a minimum of five years and a maximum of 45 years in prison, but Tullius was pushing for a sentence of at least 20 years.
It was unclear Monday whether the two cases against Reyes will be consolidated.
Contact Tina A. Brown at tabrown@courant.com
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