Texas Mother Knew Minister Was Having Sex with Underage Daughters, Witnesses Say
By Joshua Fechter
A Fort Worth mother knew that a minister was sexually abusing her two daughters, ages 11 and 13 at the time, during the 1990s, witnesses testified this week. Geronimo Aguilar, 45, allegedly repeatedly sexually assaulted the two girls when Aguilar and his wife lived with the sisters and their parents in Fort Worth and Grapevine, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. He is also accused of playing strip poker with the young girls. A Tarrant County grand jury indicted Aguilar in 2014 on two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child, three counts of sexual assault of a child under 17 and three counts of indecency with a child. Carl Everett White, a teenage boyfriend of the older daughter who now lives in San Antonio, testified Wednesday that their mother once tried to stop him from entering their home, according to the Star-Telegram. The older daughter testified under the name April Moore while the younger used the pseudonym Lake Valley. "I went in the house, and her mother was telling me that I needed to go, and Mr. Aguilar was walking out of April's room adjusting his pants, and I say, 'What the hell is going on here,'" White said. "They got me out of the house." Another witness — Jason Pena, who joined a Christian rap group led by Aguilar — told the court that Aguilar and Moore once went into another room while he spoke with the girls' mother, the Star-Telegram reported. He later knocked on the door and entered the room without hearing an answer. "I saw Geronimo, he was zipping up his pants, and Moore, she was covering herself," Pena said. "There was a pungent smell, like sex, and she looked embarrassed. The look had to be a little bit between surprise and shame." Moore testified that her mother, now 56, is a long-time drug addict suffering from lupus and blindness. The mother is being held in Tarrant County Jail on a charge of sexual assault of a child under 17, the Star-Telegram reported. Aguilar headed and founded the Richmond Outreach Center, a megachurch in Virginia. In a sermon on May 4, 2013, Aguilar addressed rumors regarding his background and relationships with female parishioners as a conspiracy to take down the center. "If this is the best the devil's got, he ain't got a chance," Aguilar told his congregation, according to The Roanoke Times. Agents with a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force arrested him 18 days later, the newspaper reported. Aguilar resigned from his position June 5, 2013. The church has since changed its name to Celebration Church Outreach Ministry, according to a cached version of its Facebook page. Contact: jfechter@mySA.com
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