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EL
CENTRO, Calif. (AP) — A dozen leaders of a California-based ministry
were arrested on charges that they used homeless people as forced labor,
holding them in locked group homes and forcing them to panhandle up to
nine hours a day, six days a week, U.S. prosecutors said.
The
former pastor of Imperial Valley Ministries, Victor Gonzalez, and the
others were arrested in San Diego, El Centro, California, and
Brownsville, Texas. They face charges of conspiracy, forced labor,
document servitude and benefits fraud.
The El
Centro-based ministry has about 30 affiliate church throughout the
United States and Mexico and runs five group homes in Southern
California, authorities said.
Dozens of
victims, many of them homeless and some as young as 17, were lured to
the group homes by the promise of food and shelter until they were able
to return home, prosecutors said.
Instead, the
ministry that billed itself as rehabilitating drug addicts kept them
inside dead bolted group homes, took their personal belongings and
identification documents and refused to return them, stole their food
stamp and welfare benefits and in some cases threatened to take away
their children if they left, according to a grand jury indictment
unsealed Tuesday.
“The indictment alleges an
appalling abuse of power by church officials who preyed on vulnerable
homeless people with promises of a warm bed and meals,” U.S. Attorney
Robert Brewer said at a news conference. “These victims were held
captive, stripped of their humble financial means, their identification,
their freedom and their dignity.”
“Windows
were nailed shut at some group home locations, leading a desperate
17-year-old victim to break a window, escape, and run to a neighboring
property to call police,” said a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s
Office.
Ministry members told people that
“they would not receive transportation home, or that loved ones had
rejected them and they must stay because ‘only God’ loved them.
Punishments for violations of home rules, including talking about the
outside world, allegedly included the withholding of food,” the
statement said.
In addition to panhandling up
to 54 hours per week to provide money to the church, some victims were
refused medical treatment, the indictment alleged.
A
diabetic woman was refused medicine, supplies and food for her low
blood sugar but managed to escape and seek help, authorities said.
Another woman was refused treatment for a prolapsed uterus, the indictment alleged.
A
man who answered the phone at the ministry’s headquarters Tuesday night
declined to comment or be named but said the church would be posting
comments on its website in a couple of days. An email message seeking
comment was not immediately returned.
All the
alleged victims that have been identified are now free and support
services were available for them and for any additional victims that are
found, authorities said.
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