Rape Conviction of Ex-pastor Upheld

By Gary V. Murray
Telegram & Gazette
January 10, 2013

http://www.telegram.com/article/20130110/NEWS/101109811/1101/raw_headlines

A former Leominster church pastor convicted of having sex with a 14-year-old girl has lost his bid for a new trial.

The Rev. Angel Morales, 34, onetime pastor of the Casa de Restauracion Church at 134 Spruce St., Leominster, was sentenced to 10 to 12 years’ imprisonment in 2011 after being found guilty by a Worcester Superior Court jury of two counts of child rape aggravated by age difference. The jury acquitted him on a third count.

The victim, whose family attended Rev. Morales’ church, testified at his February 2011 trial that she and her pastor engaged in sexual intercourse three times in late 2009 and early 2010, when she was 14 years old.

Rev. Morales admitted to two sexual encounters with the girl when questioned by Leominster police detectives. A DVD of the videotaped interview was played for the jury.

In February 2012, Rev. Morales’s appellate lawyer, David M. Jellinek, filed a motion for a new trial, alleging that his client’s trial lawyer, Leonard J. Staples, was ineffective.

The motion for a new trial, recently denied by Judge Richard T. Tucker, faulted Mr. Staples for failing to file a pretrial motion to suppress the recorded interview and a Miranda rights waiver form Rev. Morales signed. Mr. Staples did object to the introduction of the statement and waiver form at trial.

Judge Tucker, who presided over an evidentiary hearing on the motion, denied it in an 11-page ruling issued Jan. 2.

The police interview of Rev. Morales was conducted in English, and the waiver form was written in English, even though the pastor’s primary language was Spanish and he needed the assistance of an acquaintance and fellow pastor, Rev. Glenn Harvey, to act as an interpreter during the interrogation, according to Mr. Jellinek.

Mr. Jellinek argued that Rev. Morales’ statement to police could not be considered voluntary because he received the recitation of Miranda rights and warnings in English and filled out and signed a waiver form in English.

Judge Tucker disagreed.

“This court rules that Angel Morales came voluntarily to the police station to make his own confession. Angel Morales understood English sufficiently to understand and acknowledge the rights and warnings given to him pursuant to the Miranda decision.

“He understood English sufficiently to read and fill out appropriately the Miranda waiver form which requested of him background information concerning himself,” Judge Tucker wrote in his ruling.

The fact that the bilingual Rev. Harvey was not a certified-court interpreter was “of little import,” the judge found.

“Although Pastor Glenn Harvey assisted by translating some matters for Morales, it is clear from the DVD that there never was any misunderstanding by Morales as to what he was doing in confessing his crimes to the police. …,” Judge Tucker wrote.

The judge found that some of the statements by Rev. Morales were made during a non-custodial conversation with police, before there was any legal requirement to advise him of his Miranda rights.

He further found that Rev. Morales’ statements to investigators were voluntary and admissible as evidence and that it was not ineffective assistance of counsel to not attempt to suppress their introduction by pretrial motions because such motions would only have been denied.