Lincoln Journal Star
April 15, 2011
http://journalstar.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_28b005d8-59dc-5415-b396-2573a62c9c39.html
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| Efrain Umana |
Efrain Umana, a minister who led churches in Iowa and Nebraska, has been sentenced to 35 years in prison on three sexual assault charges in Iowa.
Umana was convicted by a Pottawattamie County, Iowa, jury in January. He was sentenced Wednesday for second-degree sexual abuse, third-degree sexual abuse and assault with intent to commit sexual abuse.
Umana was charged with sexually abusing four females. Most of the incidents happened at the Templo Monte Horeb church Umana led in Council Bluffs, Iowa, but he had also been accused of misconduct at two Lincoln churches and fired by the Lincoln school district.
In June 2009, he was pastor at an independent church at 2441 N. Ninth St. in Lincoln.
In 2002, he was dismissed from a Lincoln church after a former parishioner told church officials he sexually abused her when she was 17. She did not file a police report, but she and her family later filed a civil lawsuit against Umana and the church.
In 1997, Lincoln Public Schools fired Umana, who had been a bus driver since 1992. LPS reports said school officials heard from students he touched them inappropriately, although that was 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.
Umana also is charged in Douglas County Court in Omaha with first-degree sexual assault of a child. That trial is set for May.
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