"Apostle" on Trial for Child Sex Abuse

By Amy Pavuk
Orlando Sentinel
October 29, 2012

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-10-29/news/os-apostle-gangster-child-sex-trafficker-20121029_1_ormond-beach-home-prophets-manuel-rivera

Opening statements are slated to begin Tuesday in Orlando federal court in the case against a gangster turned self-proclaimed "Apostle," accused of sexually abusing children he made "prophets" in his ministry.

Authorities say Luis "Tito" Morales groomed victims through En Fuego for Jesus, a ministry he and wife, Linda Morales, started out of their Ormond Beach home in 2003.

Through En Fuego, Tito Morales and Linda Morales — a self-proclaimed prophet — tried to recruit people throughout Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Mexico and Honduras.

Tito Morales is accused of grooming a 12-year-old for sex, and told her that in order to continue in the church that she needed to "service him" as the "Apostle," according to a transcript of a May 17 initial appearance hearing.

Morales took the child to Connecticut, and while on the trip, molested her, according to documents in the case.

Prosecutors said the child was affiliated with two other children, and Morales molested all of them at his Ormond Beach home.

Morales is also accused of grooming and molesting another child, who he took to Arizona and the Virgin Islands. Authorities said Morales also took that child to a Tampa hotel and molested her there.

Prosecutors in Orlando also charged Rebeca Rivera, a self-proclaimed En Fuego prophet, with helping transport one of the children.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Gable told the court Monday that four of the victims will testify throughout the trial, which is expected to last seven days.

Since Morales and Rivera were indicted, authorities learned that Morales, Linda Morales and Rivera's husband, Manuel Rivera, "engaged in conduct" that implicates witness tampering.

Court records show that Manuel Rivera admitted he and other prophets in the En Fuego ministry, including Linda Morales, have contacted the victims' parents and threatened to expose them with embarrassing information if they continued with the prosecution.

A federal criminal witness tampering investigation was launched.

Jury selection began Monday morning in the sexual abuse case — a tedious process since jurors were questioned individually. Several prospective jurors were excused because they admitted to being victims of sex abuse or have relatives who are.

Morales was once targeted for death by the mafia in Hartford, Conn. Morales became friends with the son of one of Hartford's most notorious gangsters, and the duo went into business robbing drug dealers.

The FBI tipped Morales to a mafia plot against him, but in the late 1980s, he was caught selling cocaine and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

In the late 1990s, Morales was arrested on child-sex charges, but the case was dropped. The girls in that case said they were molested at Morales' home on Crossing Trail in Ormond Beach.

apavuk@tribune.com or 407-420-5735