HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Public Media
June 27, 2019
By Alvaro ‘Al’ Ortiz
A Montgomery County grand jury has indicted Catholic priest Manuel Antonio La Rosa-Lopez with three additional counts of child indecency, arising from child sexual abuse allegations, according to court records. La Rosa-Lopez was a priest at Conroe’s Sacred Heart Church and had already been indicted with two counts of indecency with a child.
Tyler Dunman, special crimes bureau chief at the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, told News 88.7 Tuesday there are three victims so far.
On May 13, La Rosa-Lopez was arraigned on the two initial counts at the Montgomery County 435 District Court in Conroe and entered a not guilty plea.
The new counts against the priest are related to two acts that allegedly occurred in February 1999 and one act that allegedly occurred in June 2000.
La Rosa-Lopez was originally charged in Montgomery County on September 10, 2018. He is one of the 42 clergy included in a list of priests who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing a minor released by the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston in January.
On November 28, 2018, the Conroe Police Department, Texas Rangers, Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office and other agencies executed a search warrant at the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.
It was the fourth search warrant executed in the joint law enforcement investigation of La Rosa-Lopez.
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