Ex-priest Sought by US Marshals

By Jose De Leon III
The Monitor
October 15, 2014

http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/ex-priest-sought-by-us-marshals/article_43215614-54dd-11e4-9f4a-001a4bcf6878.html

U.S. Marshals are attempting to find a former Catholic priest who disappeared after he was accused of molesting a six-year-old Brooklyn girl last June.

The suspect, Augusto Rafael Cortez, who was priest in Long Island, was already on probation after being charged in June 2008 with second-degree sexual assault. He eventually pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of forcible touching, according to Long Island-based website Newsday, which did not require him to register as a sex offender.

“We found out he has friends and family down here,” said Deputy U.S. Marshal Juan Lara, the agency’s local spokesman. “He was probably here in the Valley or he made it back into the interior of Mexico.”

Reportedly, the six-year-old girl contracted a sexually transmitted disease from Cortez. He is wanted by the New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force-Long Island Division and charged with first-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a minor.

Anyone with any information can call the U.S. Marshals Service Communications Center at 1-800-336-0102.

Contact: jdeleon@themonitor.com