Visiting Priest Faces Preliminary Hearing

By Ross Farrow
Lodi News-Sentinel
June 11, 2013

http://www.lodinews.com/news/article_093175a4-d231-11e2-b425-001a4bcf887a.html

A priest who served on a temporary basis in Lodi is due to appear in court for a preliminary hearing June 27 on charges including false imprisonment and molesting a minor.

Father Julio Cesar Guarin-Sosa, 43, was arrested on March 10 after a 16-year-old girl in Yuba City told authorities that Guarin-Sosa sexually abused her while he visited her family at their residence.

Guarin-Sosa is charged with a felony count of false imprisonment and misdemeanor counts of annoying or molesting a minor and sexual battery involving the 16-year-old girl.

A preliminary-pretrial conference is set for 1:30 p.m. June 19 and the preliminary hearing at 9 a.m. June 27 at Sutter County Superior Court in Yuba City, court records show.

The preliminary hearing is to establish whether there is enough evidence to move forward with a trial.

Guarin-Sosa was released from Sutter County Jail on $75,000 bail in March, but he was transferred to Sacramento on an immigration hold.

Guarin-Sosa, who is from Colombia, posted $5,000 bail granted by an immigration judge on March 27, according to Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

At the time of his arrest on March 10, Guarin-Sosa was visiting Lodi’s St. Anne’s Catholic Church while filling in for his vacationing brother, Father Mario Guarin. Stockton Diocese Bishop Stephen Blaire removed Guarin-Sosa as a priest within the diocese as soon as he was arrested.

Officials from St. Anne’s and the Stockton Diocese said recently that they haven’t heard from Guarin-Sosa and have no idea where he is.

Contact: rossf@lodinews.com