Man Connected to Windsor Church Found Guilty on Child Sex Assault Charges

Coloradoan
October 3, 2013

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20131002/WINDSORBEACON01/310020049/Man-connected-Windsor-church-found-guilty-child-sex-assault-charges?nclick_check=1

Hugo Ornelas / Larimer County Sheriff's Office

A Fort Collins man connected to Windsor church Iglesia del Dios Vivo has been found guilty of sexual assault on a child, making him the second man in the church’s recent history to face such charges.

Hugo Ornelas, 49, was found guilty in early September by a jury on four counts of sexual assault on a child stemming from his December 2012 arrest.

Ornelas was ordered not to be in contact with anyone under the age of 18. But in June, he was arrested again, this time on misdemeanor charges of violating the terms and conditions of his protection order, after Windsor Police, working with Fort Collins police, found Ornelas interacting with children ages 3 to 8 at the Iglesia del Dios Vivo church.

According to his arrest affidavit, Ornelas told police he thought the protection order didn’t apply to his church.

These charges come almost a decade after similar charges were brought against a pastor at the church, which was then located in Fort Collins. And the victim in that case says Ornelas wrote a letter defending the pastor to the judge.

In 2004, Jaime Solorio-Arias received a suspended three-year sentence for attempted sexual assault on a child after taking a plea deal stemming from a 1996 incident in which he was accused of forcing a 14-year-old boy to perform oral sex on him at his Fort Collins home.

Solorio-Arias was a pastor at Iglesia del Dios Vivo in Fort Collins at the time, according to the family of the victim, who is now grown and living in California. The church’s Fort Collins location has since closed, but it now has a congregation in Windsor at 416 Oak St.

The victim said his family split from Iglesia del Dios Vivo after the ordeal, adding that both Ornelas and Amador Valenzuela, who is the head pastor at the church’s headquarters in El Paso, Texas, defended and supported Solorio-Arias in 2004.

“Hugo wrote a letter to the judge supporting and defending Jaime; now he’s facing similar charges,” he said, adding that he’s “not surprised that this has happened again.”

“Justice will be served again,” he added.

It’s unclear whether Ornelas is an employee of the church. An arrest affidavit lists the church address as his point of contact, and the victim in the 2004 case says Ornelas has been a pastor at the church.

Iglesia del Vios Vivo has not returned calls seeking comment.

Ornelas is due in court in Weld County on Oct. 8 in relation to the violation of his protection order. He posted bond in both Larimer and Weld counties for his respective charges and is not in police custody. His sentencing on the sexual assault charges is set for Nov. 4 in Larimer County.