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	Aurora Resident Among Two Charged with Sexual Assault By Matt Hanley mhanley@scn1.com The Beacon News March 4, 2006 http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/city/2_1_AU04_CHURCH_S1.htm WHEATON — The DuPage County State's Attorney's Office Friday announced sexual assault charges against two former employees of a Downers Grove church, including an Aurora man who had worked as an athletic coach. According to the indictment, Joe Puga, 33, of Aurora, engaged in sexual activity with an underage female who was a student at the Marquette Manor Baptist Church from November 2001 to May 2002. The age of the victim was not released. Puga was charged with criminal sexual assault as well as aggravated criminal sexual abuse, a felony that carries a penalty of three to seven years in prison. As of late Friday, Puga had not been arrested, although the state's attorney's office would not elaborate on his status. A former youth pastor at the church, Edward Greene, 35, now of North Carolina, also was charged Friday with three counts of felony criminal sexual assault, and faces four to 15 years in prison, the state's attorney's office said. Greene has not been arrested at this point, a spokesman for the office said. Prosecutors allege that from April to June 1998, Greene engaged in sexual activity with an underage female parishioner and student at the church. Greene and Puga are accused of assaulting two different people. DuPage State's Attorney's spokesman Paul Darrah said it is not believed they were working together in any way. "What we have here are two cases of young girls who were allegedly assaulted by men they trusted, men they looked up to," said State's Attorney Joe Birkett. "This indictment charges that they took advantage of that trust to satisfy their own sexual desires. They showed complete disregard for these girls and for the emotional trauma caused by illegal and immoral behavior." According to a pastor at Marquette Manor Baptist, church officials learned of "alleged improprieties occurring in 2001" involving a boys basketball coach and a female parishioner whose age he declined to reveal. The basketball coach was a paid, part-time employee who was fired in the spring of 2002, the pastor told The Naperville Sun.
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