A 59-year-old convicted sex offender molested two young cousins and the sister of one of the boys in and around a Fullerton church, a prosecutor alleged Wednesday, but the defendant’s attorney told jurors the allegations were untrue.
Carlos Antonio Chavez of Anaheim is charged with five counts of lewd acts on a child younger than 14.
Deputy District Attorney Rebecca Reed told the jury that although many know the defendant as a “church-going, God-fearing man,” he “has been living a double life for a very long time.”
Jurors will hear testimony from the three alleged victims, as well as a woman who Chavez was convicted of molesting in 2001 in Orange County, the prosecutor said.
A sister and brother, when they were 12 and 14 years old, told their father in 2014 that Chavez molested them at their church, Iglesia de Dios Pentacostal, Reed said. It came up in conversation when they said they had seen Chavez at the church recently and it angered them, she said.
The siblings alleged the molestationshappened between 2004 and 2007.
The boy said when he was 5, Chavez offered him candy and chips one day at church, Reed said. The two went to a neighboring liquor store to get the snacks and when they arrived, he took the boy into the bathroom and sexually assaulted him, the prosecutor alleged.
As the boy was explaining what happened to his father, his sister said, “You know what? He touched me too,” Reed alleged.
During the police investigation, it came to light that Chavez had also allegedly molested their cousin, she said.
That alleged victim was reluctant to cooperate with authorities but came around a few years later, Reed said. The boy alleged that Chavez took him when he was 5 years old into a bathroom at the church, under the guise of helping him get something off a high shelf, and then molested him, Reed said.
Jurors will also hear testimony from a now 21-year-old woman who Chavez was convicted of molesting in a McDonald’s restroom in 2001, Reed said.
Defense attorney David Medina characterized the evidence in the case as “implausible and unbelievable.”
The allegations are “completely impossible” because the defendant held no position in the church in which he would have access to children in isolated situations, Medina said.
“You’re not going to hear any specifics as to when these acts occurred,” Medina said.
The defense attorney asked jurors to “put aside” his client’s prior conviction to more fairly assess his guilt in the current case.