NEVADA
Las Vegas Review-Journal
By David Ferrara
Las Vegas Review-Journal
A former Las Vegas pastor used his church as an outlet to rape several minor girls, a special prosecutor said Thursday during opening statements of a sexual assault trial.
Otis Holland, now 59, fled Southern Nevada in 2011 after Henderson police issued an arrest warrant alleging several counts of sexual assault of a victim younger than 16 years old, one count of child abuse and one count of conspiracy to commit a crime.
“Mr. Holland’s church was unique in one very dark way: he had a fundamental belief about spirituality and sexuality,” said Robert Langford, who is prosecuting on the case. “And that’s what this case is going to be about. He believes you could not begin to attain spirituality if you were troubled by your sexuality. And that’s what he preached.”
Holland was the pastor for United Faith Church, which held services in a storefront on Hacienda Avenue, near Tropicana and Eastern avenues. He met privately with the girls under the guise of “counseling” them about sexual issues, and then performed sex acts on them, Langford said.
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