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	Pastor Charged with Sex Crimes Was Dismissed from 2 Lincoln Churches Lincoln Journal Star June 25, 2009 http://journalstar.com/articles/2009/06/25/news/local/doc4a42c74cf079e851198119.txt The pastor charged last week with a series of sex crimes in Iowa has a troubled history in Lincoln — including an allegation he sexually abused a teenager. The Rev. Efrain Umana was arrested June 11 at his home at 1906 Hartley St. in Lincoln for extradition to Iowa. Council Bluffs police allege Umana, 53, forced a 10- or 11-year-old girl to have sex with him in Templo Monte Horeb church there in 2003. In court documents, they also allege he forced a Council Bluffs woman to have sex with him at her home in 2007. And, they say, he kissed women against their will in two 2008 incidents at the Council Bluffs church. Umana is pastor at El Nuevo Nacimiento, an independent church at 2441 N. Ninth St. in Lincoln. Attempts to reach him were unsuccessful. Umana was released from the Pottawattamie County Jail on June 16 after posting bond. He and his wife have been pastors in Lincoln for 25 years and came here from El Salvador, according to the church’s Web site. During that time, he has been dismissed from two churches in Lincoln and fired from a job driving a school bus: * In 2002, Umana was dismissed from a Lincoln church, Templo Pentecostal El Nuevo Nacimiento de Efesios 2:20, after a former parishioner alleged to church officials that Umana had sexually abused her when she was 17. Neither she nor her family filed a police report, but they later filed a civil lawsuit against Umana and the church. * In 1997, Lincoln Public Schools fired Umana, who had been a bus driver for the district since 1992. LPS reports say school officials heard from students that he touched them inappropriately, though that’s not mentioned in his termination. * In November, leaders of another Lincoln church revoked his credentials for at least a year, accusing him of unbecoming ministerial conduct. On Sunday, the pastor’s son, Albert Umana, said the latest accusations against his father “may be the final in a series of attempts to take over his ministry and destroy it.” “Unfortunately, with these type of allegations people assume someone is guilty,” Albert Umana said. “Even if you’re proven innocent, there’s always a lingering doubt.” The former Lincoln parishioner said in an interview and in the lawsuit that Umana began a sexual relationship with her in July 2001 when she was 17 and a member of Templo Pentecostal El Nuevo Nacimiento de Efesios 2:20. The relationship continued for eight months, she said in the suit her family filed in 2005. “I think his position as a pastor had a lot to do with it,” the woman, now 25, said in an interview last week. “I felt like I couldn’t say no.” The Journal Star is not using the woman’s name because the lawsuit asserts she was a sexual assault victim. The woman, who said the relationship never included intercourse, said she kept quiet until a 14-year-old friend told her she also was molested. A November 2002 letter to Umana from the Midwest Latin American District Council of the Assemblies of God Church lists an allegation by a 14-year-old as one of five reasons for his dismissal.Neither the woman nor the younger friend pursued criminal charges, but the woman and her family said they showed Assemblies of God Church leaders what they said were inappropriate e-mails Umana sent to their daughter, as well as letters from her psychiatrist and counselor. In 2003, they now say, they were told by the church he had been dismissed. But, they say, local church officials later said Umana left of his own accord. In 2005, the family filed a civil lawsuit against Umana and the church asking for damages. They said they settled with the church in 2007. “We don’t care about the money,” her mother said. “We just wanted proof of his dismissal.” Attempts to reach church leaders for comment were unsuccessful. Nancy Biggs, associate superintendent for human resources with Lincoln Public Schools, declined to say why Umana was terminated in 1997, but, she said last week, it wasn’t because school officials were worried about his conduct with children. The LPS termination report obtained by the Journal Star was part of the court record for the civil suit. “Efrain was a good bus driver, however, we continually had calls about not doing the route correctly and saying some inappropriate things,” the report said. “The last issue dealt with an inappropriate note to a student.” According to a 1997 LPS memo, Umana sent a note to a boy in middle school: “I will kill you next time I’ll see you!” Additional LPS memos that were part of the lawsuit indicate elementary students told school officials in 1993 and 1994 that Umana said inappropriate things to them and touched them inappropriately. On Tuesday, Biggs said that while school officials do believe children and find them to be credible, “sometimes when we talk to students, what they tell us sounds different than when it first was reported to us.” In those cases, Biggs said, officials might take other disciplinary action, like requiring an employee to undergo training. In a 1993 memo, LPS transportation supervisor Jeann Mann said she felt Umana was struggling to learn about life in the United States and that she thought he did not act maliciously. The memo says Umana told Mann he felt students needed to be told they were pretty or beautiful so they would feel good about themselves. Mann said she told Umana he needed to use a better choice of words and gave him several examples of things he could say. “I will continue to work with Efrain on appropriate behavior around students,” she wrote. In 1993, a man called the district to say he saw Umana pretend he was going to run over junior high students with his bus, according to an LPS report. Umana said in the report that the kids were just kidding around. After he left Assemblies of God, Umana became pastor at another church in Lincoln that was affiliated with the International General Assembly of the Church of God, according to Lancaster County Court documents. In November, a trial board with that church revoked his credentials for unbecoming conduct, court records say. The woman who claims Umana molested her when she was 17 said she would like to see laws changed so it is not so easy for a person to become a pastor. She also said she hopes if there are other victims they will come forward, even though they may want to forget what happened. “We need to stop just looking out for ourselves,” she said. “We need to look out for the well-being of everyone and speak up, because it will happen to someone else.” In Iowa, Umana is charged with second-degree sexual abuse, which carries a mandatory 25-year prison sentence, third-degree sexual abuse and two counts of intent to commit sexual abuse. He is set for a preliminary hearing in Pottawattamie County Court on July 24. Reach Hilary Kindschuh at 473-7120 or hkindschuh@journalstar.com
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