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  Pastor Accused of Molesting Young Church Member

By Tina Chau
KGMB
July 23, 2008

http://kgmb9.com/main/content/view/8474/40/

[with video]

You may have seen him on an Olelo channel preaching messages of salvation.

As of Wednesday night, pastor Manuel Guillermo Taboada is inside the Oahu Community Correctional Center.

An Oahu grand jury indicted him on charges he sexually molested a young member of his church. The deputy prosecutor on the case said he separated her from her family and then allegedly molested her over an eight year period.

"The defendant moved the victim into his room with his family to groom her for a leadership position, taking her from her family's room and moved them into another house," said deputy prosecutor Vickie Kapp. "Since the victim was 12 years old, the suspect committed several sexual offenses against her in the house and in the ministry's van until she turned 20 years old.

Taboada is 56 years old and also goes by the name "Memo." He was arrested Monday at the Honolulu International Airport.

State sheriffs and Honolulu police were waiting at the gate when his Hawaiian air flight from Portland, Ore. landed.

Taboada used to live in Portland and had a ministry there before relocating to Oahu. Honolulu city prosecutors tell us he's also being investigated by Oregon officials for similar allegations.

In the Hawaii case, Taboada's alleged victim is now 21 years old.

In 1999, she and her family joined and lived at tTaboada's Kaneohe ministry called "Back to the Cross Evangelism."

Kapp said Taboada and several families lived together on the Kaneohe compound, where they followed Taboada, gave him money and worked together in a commune situation.

Long-time Kaneohe resident Ruth Okamura lives right next door. She would see Taboada, his children and others in their yard but never got to know them.

"I just felt that he wasn't someone I'd like to know," she said. "He didn't give me a good impression."

Contact: tchau@kgmb9.com

 
 

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