«This year I have not ceased to be amazed at what people do in the name of religion. Sorry, my hands are tied. Lawyers have done what lawyers do. Jane Does, the world has heard you. The relatives who abandoned them should be ashamed. (Naasón Joaquín García) you are a sexual predator ».
With that forcefulness Judge Ronald S. Coen spoke this Wednesday before lowering his voice to read the sentence for the leader of the church La Luz del Mundo almost on the run and without vocalizing: 16 years and 8 months, as the defendant’s lawyers had agreed on Friday with the Attorney General’s Office California in exchange for pleading guilty to three of the 19 charges he faced.
Las Jane Does —judicial nickname of the women who rose up to denounce the self-proclaimed “apostle of Jesus Christ” and on whose testimony the criminal case that ultimately did not go to trial had been built— They hugged each other while still sitting down and began to cry.
A guard led Joaquín García out the side door of the California Superior Courthouse in Los Angeles, wearing his orange jumpsuit, mask and close-cropped hair.
The rest of the room stayed in a awkward silence.
It was not the end that many in the room expected of the legal process that began on June 3, 2019 with the arrest of Joaquín García and one of his assistants, Susana Medina Oaxaca, at the Los Angeles airport.
All those who spoke during Wednesday’s hearing had asked the judge to impose the maximum sentence allowed by law. They expected a life sentence or several life sentences consecutive.
“Judge, I beg you to listen to my voice, that of my fellow survivors. This man and this church are much more dangerous than you can imagine. They have destroyed hundreds of lives and will continue to do so. I beg you with all my heart, please, please, please extend his sentence to the maximum. Do it to set an example, to save other victims.”
That was the plea of Jane Doe 5, the last to make the request that had been repeated by different voices but with similar arguments. With this she closed her intervention, in which she spoke in detail of “seven years of abuse.”
“My rapist, my torment”
“The abuse started slowly,” said the young woman with long hair and a pink dress. “She was 21 years old but she was naive to the world, a virgin. She had a boyfriend that she had only kissed, because everything else was forbidden. And they told me that she had been chosen by Naasón for an additional blessing». It was the first time she had been made to wear lingerie for the leader of the congregation.
The thing escalated quickly, the young woman said, and soon the day came when the “tricksters” of the church – as she calls them – asked her to give Joaquín García a gift. It was usual for the faithful to entertain their leader, but this time it had to be “the most precious thing she had”: her virginity.
“I remember wondering why I was having such a negative physical reaction when what was happening to me was so wonderful. But I I never consented to have sex with you, nor in a million years would I have accepted it if it weren’t for the brainwashing we are subjected to, “ she said addressing her “rapist, torment”, despite the fact that the judge had warned them not to do so, to speak to him at all times.
The prosecutors listened with downcast heads. Defense attorney Alan Jackson looked at her from the front intermittently, the judge looked at the defendant from the corner of his eye.
He went on to describe the scene where he lost his virginity at the hands of what he believed to be God on Earth. She was violent, she said. “There was blood everywhere. You and your tricksters knew it was a horrendous experience for me. You made two grab me so I wouldn’t run away. Do you think that is consent?
She explained that for years Joaquín García used her as a sexual slave and when she was not, she acted as a personal servant. “They told me that cleaning his bathroom was a blessing.”
One day she was sent to Mexico to marry “a complete stranger.” “I felt sold like cattle.
And in that country things got even more twisted. «They kidnapped me, they had me 24/7 with their private guard. I was terrified. I thought they were going to kill me », he assured.
He went, he said, to the US Embassy to seek help. «Your power is so great in Jalisco —the Mexican state in which La Luz del Mundo was born and where it has its headquarters, the so-called Hermosa Province, in Guadalajara— that even the FBI had a hard time getting me out of there. Because I’m a US citizen, because if not, I don’t know what would have happened.”
“When they rescued me, I thought that I was saved, that my suffering was over. But it had only just begun.” She, with a firm voice, narrated how he began to receive threats of death by members of La Luz del Mundo, that everyone distanced themselves from her. «They began to say that we were whores and that it was what we had wanted. Her lawyers used our traumas once morest us ».
Those traumas led her to consult therapists. “But they told me that they were not prepared to deal with such complex cases.” she ended up in a mental health institution.
“It is my daughter who keeps me going. You took everything from me She is the antichrist ».
“Is my uncle”
It wasn’t the only time during the hearing that word was used to describe him. They also called him a “pedophile”, “rapist”, “criminal” and “predator”.
And even “uncle.” She was Jane Doe 4, the first of the five to speak. She was also dressed in pink and kept stroking her pregnant belly.
“Naasón, my rapist, my tormentor, is my uncle”, he said exactly.
During sexual intercourse “you told me to call you uncle, that it was sexy. Now, here, does it still sound like that to you? You’ve known me since I was born, you saw me grow up. You were supposed to protect me. But you chose to take advantage of me. It was your choice, not mine. I just gave up,” she continued.
“Naasón and this church have ruined my life, every aspect of it,” in a phrase also repeated by other “survivors” of the leader of La Luz del Mundo, as they call themselves.
“I dedicated my life to serving you. I was vulnerable and naive and he took advantage. He said it was his property. He used me over and over once more. I was raped and abused, day following day, year following year.”
“He is only 14 years old”
“Do you remember that time…?”, continued Jane Doe 4, describing situations such as the one in which, according to her, they immobilized her on the floor so that she would not resist having sex, the one in which she was forced “until she vomited” , or when she screamed and cried regarding the abuse and other members of La Luz del Mundo laughed.
Do you remember that time you told me to bring my sister? ‘He’s only 14 years old’, I replied. ‘You should have brought it to me earlier,’ you told me.”
“In case you forgot, I’m here to remind you.”
He said he was taking the opportunity to tell his truth—something the plea deal did not allow, since there was no trial—and to make the public understand that “saying no to the apostle was impossible.”
“It was equivalent to saying ‘I have no faith,’ which means dying in hell.”
“We were indoctrinated to believe it,” Jane Doe 2 also assured in her speech, wearing a light blue dress and an earring in her nose.
«Naasón, I am speaking to you: you destroyed me. You destroyed my life, you changed my perception of reality. You are a coward. We want the world to know what a horrible monster he is.”
“Many pastors are pedophiles”
“This has been going on for over 100 years and it has to stop. Many pastors are pedophiles. It’s disgusting and sad. I thought church was a safe place for me, but it was my worst nightmare,” Jane Doe 2 continued.
Along these lines, he also pointed to Alba Monsalvo López: “My pastor’s wife, who tried to convince me that everything was fine and that she still protects Naasón.”
Jane Doe 3, the most discarded of all, nervous and tearful, had similar words for Alondra Ocampo, who was a co-defendant in the case, pleaded guilty to four counts in October 2020 and is awaiting sentencing.
During the hearing, the role of other members of La Luz del Mundo came to light, such as Abner Nicolás Menchaca Tristán, who was gift in the room, in the last row and covered with a mask.
Pastor and member of the so-called Council of Bishops, he was in charge of giving the message to the parishioners following the agreement reached on Friday with the Prosecutor’s Office. Jane Doe 4 made the room listen to him.
Jane Doe 1 did not speak during the hearing, but a statement written by her was read. “Naason, you are a disgrace to humanity,” was one of her phrases.
“Mommy, I can’t be here”
After describing the abuse suffered by Naasón, telling how he stole his childhood and made him drop out of school, Jane Doe 3 recalled the day he was arrested at the Los Angeles airport.
“My mom woke me up so I might go to church with her to pray for my rapist, for my torment. They were all crying, screaming, praying for Naason. My mother started too. I know that his actions were the result of brainwashing, but he was not feeling pain for me, his daughter », he explained.
“I told her, ‘Mommy, I can’t be here, I have to go to school.’ I will never forget that moment. She didn’t even look at me.”
The mother of another victim spoke during the hearing. “What have I done to you to rape my daughter?” She told Joaquín García, who following hours of session still did not make the slightest movement.
There were more family members who spoke. The message from the brother of Jane Doe 2 was read — «our world has been turned upside down» —, that of the mother of Jane Doe 3 — «my daughter, because of you (Naasón) tried to kill herself several times» -.
Jane Doe 4’s husband told those in the courtroom: “When this is over and everyone goes home to their loved ones, I I will stay with my wife and watch her fall apart and pick up her little pieces one by one.
Each and every one rejected the agreement reached by the lawyers of Joaquín García and the Prosecutor’s Office, despite the explanations of the Deputy Attorney General of California, Patricia Fusco, who opened the session:
“No punishment will erase what they have been through. They have been exceptionally brave. They will continue to be marked for the rest of their lives and we know it, but we hope that this agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office will help them. Everyone at the Justice Department expects it. May it help them have a happy life.”
From that very beginning, the decision was already made, as the judge said.
The journalists in the room were left making calculations: 16 years and 8 months. «He has already been in prison for three, and with good behavior, how much will it come out? one speculated.