Bail for Former Redding Priest Cut to $700k; Ex-Redding Cleric Faces Child Molestation Trial

Record Searchlight
January 6, 2012

www.redding.com/news/2012/jan/05/priest-bail-cut-to-700k/

Ojeda is accused of seven counts of lewd and lascivious acts.

SACRAMENTO — A suspended Redding priest charged with seven felony counts of child molestation had his $5 million bail reduced Thursday to $700,000 during a hearing in Sacramento County Superior Court.

The Rev. Uriel Ojeda, 32, was arrested Nov. 30, 2011, after surrendering to law enforcement officials in Sacramento County after the diocese received a complaint from a parishioner's family. His original bail was so high because prosecutors claimed he was a flight risk.

Ojeda, who had been assistant pastor at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Redding, is accused of seven counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a teenage girl over a two-year span — starting when she was 14 — in Sacramento and Shasta counties, according to the criminal complaint filed against him by the Sacramento County district attorney's office.

Ojeda's defense attorney, Jesse Ortiz of Sacramento, could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon but has said the $5 million bail was excessively high. The Sacramento Bee reported Ortiz said after the hearing his client would post his $700,000 bail later Thursday and be released.

Shelly Orio, a spokeswoman for the Sacramento County district attorney's office, said Deputy District Attorney Allison Dunham argued in court to keep the $5 million bail in place, saying that Ojeda admitted to an investigator for the Sacramento Catholic Diocese that he repeatedly molested the teenage parishioner.

Ortiz, however, denied that claim in court.

Ojeda is due to return to Superior Court on Feb. 2 for a settlement conference, Orio said.

The criminal complaint against Ojeda alleges the first three molestations, all which occurred in the alleged victim's bedroom in Sacramento County, took place between June 29, 2007, and June 30, 2009.

But four other incidents are alleged to have occurred in a swimming pool, a bathroom and a bedroom in Shasta County between July 1, 2009, and Aug. 30, 2009, according to the criminal complaint. According to the first count in the criminal complaint, Ojeda allegedly entered the girl's bedroom in Sacramento County and touched her inappropriately.

The seven-count complaint also alleges he fondled the girl and kissed her during later encounters with her in Sacramento County. In addition, while they were in Shasta County, Ojeda touched the girl's breast in a bathroom and in a swimming pool and also pulled her on top of him, the complaint contends.

Ojeda has been assistant pastor at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Redding for two years.