North Bergen Pastor/exorcist Convicted of Molesting Boy Now Facing New Sex Charges

By Michaelangelo Conte
Jersey Journal
March 3, 2015

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2015/03/north_bergen_sex_offender_pastor_exorcist_facing_m.html

Gregorio Martinez, right, of Jersey City, looks towards the gallery of the courtroom during a break in his trial on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015. Martinez is charged with aggravated criminal sexual contact involving a minor, endangering the welfare of a child and child abuse. Reena Rose Sibayan | The Jersey Journal

New sex crime charges have been filed against the North Bergen pastor/exorcist convicted last week of molesting a 13-year-old boy in 2012.

Gregorio Martinez, 47, was convicted of aggravated criminal sexual contact, child abuse and endangering the welfare of the child for kissing the boy on the lips and groping his genitals.

Last week Hudson County Deputy First Assistant Prosecutor Debbie Simon said the new complaint against Martinez was signed Feb. 13 and charges him with one count of criminal sexual contact and two counts of attempted sexual assault in connection with two separate incidents.

The new charges involve an adult male victim, with the first alleged attempted sexual assault occurring in October 2013, said Simon, who heads the prosecutor's office's Special Victims Unit. She said Martinez remains free on a $250,000 cash or bond bail.

Attempted sexual assault is a second degree crime carrying a possible sentence of five to 10 years in prison. Criminal sexual contact is a third degree crime carrying a possible three to five years sentence upon conviction.

On Wednesday, Martinez was found guilty of the 2012 sexual assault after only about 30 minutes of jury deliberation.

At the time, Martinez was a deacon at Third Bethesda Pentecostal Church in Union City and he knew the boy through the church, according to testimony. He is currently co-pastor Elohim Church in North Bergen.

The incident occurred inside a minivan in a North Bergen Walmart parking lot, while the boy's mother was in the store buying diapers for the victim's sister.

"There was a lot of testimony about him 'delivering' people and exorcisms and removing demons and evil spirits from people," Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Linda Claude-Oben said during the trial last week.

Claude-Oben continued: "This defendant, this prophet who could take out demons, ask yourself if (the victim) could have done something. Ask yourself if he would be confused and scared and not know what to do."

Following last week's guilty verdict, Martinez faces up to five years in prison when sentenced on April 12 by Hudson County Superior Court Judge Mitzy Galis-Menendez in the Hudson County Administration Building in Jersey City