A Preacher's Flight from Justice
By Mark Mueller and Brian Donohue
The investigation, encompassing dozens of interviews in Nicaragua and New Jersey, showed how easily a convicted criminal slipped from the grasp of law enforcement, fleeing the country without a valid passport and building a new life in which he continued to have contact with children. Martinez faced a sentence ranging from probation to five years in prison. His former defense lawyer, Louis Serterides, said it appeared Martinez "wasn't going to take any chances" by returning for sentencing once he learned he'd been charged with molesting three more people, all young adults. A conviction on those counts could have sent him to prison for a decade. "He's very canny, and he's a con artist, and you don't realize that until you're well into your professional relationship with him," Serterides said. "Certain things start to pop up, and you realize you're dealing with a three-dollar bill here." Beyond the factors that eased Martinez's escape, NJ Advance Media's inquiry revealed gaps in the child-protection measures employed by some Assemblies of God churches: A positive word from a pastor opened doors for a predator vetted by no one. An Assemblies of God official said Martinez was not ordained by the group and was therefore not subject to a mandatory criminal background check. Yet simply by attending the group's meetings, networking with its ordained pastors and preaching at its churches, Martinez gained enough trust to be fully accepted by ministers and parishioners alike. NJ Advance Media found that Martinez's work in Esteli had been facilitated by Verardo Acosta, a prominent New Jersey pastor and former Assemblies of God leader in the state. Acosta, 58, of Bergenfield, acknowledged he wrote a letter of recommendation on Martinez's behalf about four months after the conviction and vouched for him on a trip to the Central American nation in November, telling a council of ministers Martinez represented him there. The pastor said he also spoke to Martinez by phone as often as three times a week until early this year. A second Assemblies of God minister from New Jersey, Uriel Sanchez, 38, spent several days in Nicaragua with Martinez in late January, preaching with him at a large outdoor event and staying with him at a church compound in Esteli, according to people who say they saw the pair together. Sanchez presides over a church in the Trenton area. Both New Jersey pastors said they were unaware of Martinez's arrest and conviction, which were covered extensively by local media and picked up by news aggregation websites. The stories remain among the top search results under his name on Google. The probe further revealed how two of Martinez's close friends — a mother and son who served as alibi witnesses at his trial and who secured his bail with property they now stand to lose — knew he was in Nicaragua but did not alert authorities, according to people who said they met them there. Jersey City residents Paula Martinez, 52, and Kelvin Martinez, 28, who are not related to Gregorio Martinez, were among the guests at the birthday party in Esteli, the three fellow attendees said. Both remain deeply involved in a Jersey City church where Gregorio Martinez's father, Arturo, serves as pastor, the father confirmed. In a brief telephone interview, Paula Martinez initially said she did not know Gregorio Martinez's whereabouts. Told that several people in Esteli had placed her and her son at the party, she grew angry and said she could "explain what happened" but needed to return to work. She later canceled an interview scheduled for the next day. "I talked to my son, and I want to talk to my lawyer first," she said. She would not name the attorney. Both Paula and Kelvin Martinez declined further comment when a reporter knocked on the door of their home on Whiton Street in Jersey City. Paula Martinez's older sister, Maria Sanchez, who lives in a second-floor apartment at the home, said she is baffled by the allegiance shown to Gregorio Martinez by her sister and nephew, saying it's as if they are under the preacher's spell. Sanchez — who is not related to Uriel Sanchez, the pastor who visited Esteli — said she has no doubt the two have been in contact with Gregorio Martinez since he fled. Her sister, she said, told her Martinez escaped with a fraudulent passport obtained from a fellow Dominican living in New Jersey. "They know," Sanchez said. "They know where he is, may God strike me down." He bounces lightly, rhythmically, on the balls of his feet, one hand clutching a microphone, the other cradling the head of a sobbing woman who leans into his chest. Gregorio Martinez is delivering the Holy Spirit, and his audience is in thrall. Dressed in a mustard-yellow shirt, gray slacks and matching gray vest, he moves from person to person in an Orlando, Fla., church, shouting in Spanish about the devil and redemption, sin and deliverance. He whispers in ears. Lays on hands. Speaks in tongues, voice undulating. Ba ba ba ba ba la ba ba ba ba ba ya ba ba. At the preacher's touch, men bow their heads, crying. Women crumple to the floor. A young girl, all coiled energy, flails her arms wildly and snaps her head from side to side, ponytail whipping. The scene is captured in one of five videos posted to a YouTube account under Martinez's name in 2012, the same year he groped his 13-year-old victim.
Martinez, not yet closely associated with the Assemblies of God, appears to have used the account as an advertisement of sorts: traveling preacher delivers inspiration, expels demons. He called himself Evangelista Gregorio Martinez Lazala — he has used the last name intermittently, records show — and he included an email address for those who wanted more information. An email sent by NJ Advance Media this spring received no response. The circumstances of Martinez's trip to Orlando could not be determined, but it is common for Pentecostal pastors to share the stage with visiting preachers, particularly those known to enliven crowds, according to interviews with pastors in New Jersey and Nicaragua. Martinez was such a preacher, traveling to Spanish-language churches across New Jersey and beyond, according to testimony at his trial. A balding man of medium height with arching eyebrows and a splash of freckles, he infused his talks with passion and intensity, rousing the faithful with a voice that whipsawed from near-whisper to crescendo. "People believe him and follow him because he's very charismatic," said the mother of Martinez's victim. "He gets people to trust him. He plays the game very well." The woman, whose name is being withheld to protect the identity of her son, now 17, was among those who gave Martinez her trust. She said she stood at his beck and call, driving him around and performing some of his household chores. She said she believed he was a prophet of God. In reality, prosecutors now say, he used the name of God as a cudgel to force himself sexually on victims. Beyond the 13-year-old victim, the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office charged Martinez during and after his trial with assaulting three other men, ages 18 and 19, who were members of a prayer group he led in Jersey City.
Separate indictments allege Martinez groped, penetrated or tried to penetrate his victims through "physical force or coercion." Two of the men were abused for months at a time in 2009, the indictments state. The third adult victim told police Martinez twice tried to penetrate him late in 2014, while the preacher was out on bail, and continued to fondle him until Jan. 10, 2015, just a month before Martinez's trial, according to the indictment. In all of the assaults, authorities said, Martinez told the men they would be "going against the will of God" or committing a sin if they resisted. The mother of the 13-year-old boy said she met Martinez at Union City's Third Bethesda Pentecostal Church, one of scores of small Pentecostal churches that dot New Jersey's Latino neighborhoods. Martinez, who lived with his parents in a first-floor apartment on New York Avenue in Jersey City, served as a deacon at the church. The mother said he arrived in New Jersey from the Dominican Republic at least six years ago, following other members of his family to the state. Authorities said Martinez was a permanent legal resident, or green card holder, at the time of his arrest. The mother called him an opportunist who targeted divorced or separated women trying to manage children alone, as she was at the time. She said she believes Martinez is also manipulating Paula Martinez and milking her for cash. "He's using Paula," the mother said. Paula Martinez put up two properties to secure Martinez's release from jail after his arrest, said Martin Melendez, a partner in Big Lou's Bail Bonds, the Jersey City company that stands to lose up to $225,000 if Gregorio Martinez is not caught. The firm holds liens on the Whiton Street home and on a second house on Grove Street in Elizabeth, Melendez said. A veteran fugitive-hunter, Melendez said he remains surprised by some people's devotion to Martinez. "Everyone seems to feel sorry for him," Melendez said. "Paula said to us, 'I'm prepared to lose everything. He's innocent and the truth will come out.'?" The bail bondsman said it was as if Martinez was "brainwashing these individuals."
From the moment the witness took the stand, Louis Serterides said, he feared his case was doomed. Martinez's victim, by then 15, spoke directly and with composure during the February 2015 trial in Superior Court in Hudson County. "He was so compelling a witness," the defense lawyer said. "So forthright. I don't think there was any doubt in the jury's mind this kid was telling the absolute truth. I sat there and said to myself, 'Oh my God, we're in trouble unless we can really pull a rabbit out of the hat.'?" The boy testified the attack took place in his mother's minivan in June 2012. They were returning from a night-time church service when the mother stopped at a North Bergen Wal-Mart to shop for a few items. In the back of the minivan, the boy said, Martinez began to touch his leg, then moved his hands to the teen's genitals and fondled him. Martinez, the victim testified, leaned over and kissed him. Paula Martinez, Kelvin Martinez and a friend testified for the defense, saying that on the night of the attack, Gregorio Martinez visited them at the Whiton Street home for an evening of dinner, socializing and prayer. The jury rejected the account, swiftly finding Gregorio Martinez guilty of aggravated criminal sexual contact, child abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.
Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Linda Claude-Oben did not ask for Martinez's bail to be revoked immediately after the verdict, and Superior Court Judge Mitzy Galis-Menendez did not raise the issue, according to an audio recording of the trial's final day. Assistant Prosecutor Leo Hernandez, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office, said Claude-Oben had a recollection that she did ask for bail revocation and that it was denied, but it is not reflected in the Feb. 25 recording NJ Advance Media obtained from the court. It is possible she made the request on another occasion. "It is standard procedure for prosecutors to ask for bail revocation upon conviction," Hernandez said. Martinez, whose passport had been seized after his arrest, was ordered to return to court for a pre-sentence review three weeks later. He never showed up. Asked why she did not revoke Martinez's bail at any time, Judge Galis-Menendez referred questions to Winnie Comfort, a spokeswoman for the judiciary. Comfort said Martinez had appeared in court throughout his trial and that the most serious charges on which he was convicted were third-degree offenses, which carry a presumption of probation at sentencing.
The additional charges, she said, would not weigh into a judge's decisions on bail. "There can be cases where it seems that something should be done, but people are innocent until judged by a jury of their peers," Comfort said. "Sentencing guidelines are pretty clear." Serterides, who has practiced law for 40 years, suggested judicial decisions are not always so uniform in practice. With the new, more serious charges against his client, a presumptive sentence of probation likely "would have gone out the window," he said. Officials at the prosecutor's office, unaware of Martinez's precise location until contacted by NJ Advance Media, asked for the public's help in finding him. "I can tell you we're actively investigating it along with other law enforcement agencies at the federal level," said Hernandez, the spokesman. Martinez's father maintains his son is innocent, saying Gregorio Martinez was falsely accused after discovering a member of the church had misused money. "Revenge," Arturo Martinez said. "It was revenge." Arturo Martinez is now pastor of Elohim Christian Church, which is affiliated with the Assemblies of God, in Jersey City. The church was previously located in North Bergen. Gregorio Martinez served as co-pastor there after he left Third Bethesda Pentecostal Church in Union City following the arrest. A slight man who tends daily to his gravely ill wife, Arturo Martinez said his son received a death threat by telephone toward the end of the trial. The father punctuated the statement with a throat-slashing gesture. "When he left, he was afraid," Arturo Martinez said. "Someone was going to kill him. He left running." The father's claim could not be verified. He said his son did not tell police about the alleged threat. Asked if he knew Verardo Acosta, the North Jersey pastor who wrote a letter of recommendation for Gregorio Martinez, Arturo Martinez paused for several seconds. "I want to ask a lawyer before I answer that," he said.
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