Dec 21, 2007 5:52 pm US/Pacific
Pastor Gets 2 Years In Jail For Sex With Teen
SANTA ANA, Calif. (CBS) ―
A married pastor pleaded guilty Friday and was sentenced to two years in prison for having sex in his church office with a 16-year-old female parishioner and violating a court order forbidding him from seeing her, an official said.
Ronald Hernandez Tovar, 57, of Placentia, pleaded guilty to three counts of unlawful sexual intercourse, oral copulation of a minor, sexual exploitation of a child and two counts of disobeying a court order, said Farrah Emami of the Orange County District Attorney's Office.
Tovar had been free on $100,000 bail pending trial on the sex charges that occurred between Aug. 1, 2006, and Dec. 31. He was arrested last month when he drove to Montclair and met the girl in a church parking lot, then drove her to her home, where police who had been following him arrested him, Emami said.
During a subsequent search, officers found a video that had been taped by Tovar of the victim having sex with another man, Emami said.
The first time he violated the court order preventing him from seeing the girl was in July, when he was seen by a friend of the girl's mother sitting on a bus bench with the girl, Emami said.
Tovar, who is pastor of The Shadow of the Almighty church in Stanton, had sex with the girl on multiple occasions and different locations, including his church office in Anaheim Hills.
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