Protesters Says Pastor's Backers Acted Too Soon

By Louis Llovio
Richmond Times-Dispatch
May 28, 2013

http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/local/crime/article_89910966-c797-11e2-8f1c-001a4bcf6878.html

Protesters from SNAP including Christian Ianni; his mother, Becky Ianni (holding a photograph of herself at age 9) and Wayne Dorough took part in a news conference outside the Richmond Police Department.

The leader of a group of child sexual abuse victims today demanded an apology from supporters of a Richmond pastor who has been charged with assaulting two girls in Texas.

Geronimo Aguilar, pastor of the Richmond Outreach Center, also known as the ROC, faces charges in Texas for alleged offenses dating to 1996. He is on a paid leave from the church, whose board released a statement last week saying it “believes the accusations against him to be completely untrue and unfounded.”

Becky Ianni, the Virginia director for the Survivor Network of those Abused by Priests, called for an apology, saying judgment should be withheld, and that supporters should back Aguilar only quietly if they must do so while he’s been investigated.

ROC board members, Ianni said, "asked for prayers for Aguilar and his family but don’t mention the pain and suffering of the possible victims.”

Ianni, joined by other members of SNAP outside the Richmond Police Department, said victims of abuse should come forward to police.

In another development earlier today, the ROC board said in a statement that an executive pastor is temporarily stepping down pending misdemeanor charges for making threatening and obscene phone calls.

Jason W. Helmlinger, 41, a former Henrico County police officer, was charged for making threats against a critic of Geronimo Aguilar, the south Richmond megachurch's senior pastor. Aguilar was transferred to Texas last week to face child sexual assault charges.

The church said Helmlinger will undergo counseling and remain away from the job until the matter is resolved.

(Staff writer Louis Llovio contributed to this report.)