A Hesperia pastor is in police custody following an investigation into allegations he sexually abused two minors beneath his lend a hand as a foster mum or dad.
Jose Manuel Lozano is looking forward to trial on the Prime Wilderness Detention Middle in Adelanto, the place he’s being held rather of $5-million bail. Investigators described his alleged sufferers as women ages 16 and 10.
Jose Manuel Lozano
(Hesperia Police Segment)
The 54-year-old Hesperia resident led bilingual products and services for a predominately Latino and Spanish-speaking congregation at Zion Meeting Church of God Hesperia, an associate of Zion Meeting Church of God World, headquartered in Tennessee. A consultant from the endmost stated in an interview that the group condemns Lozano’s “ungodliness” and that he used to be got rid of from place of job March 15, when the allegations got here to shiny. He used to be arrested extreme future.
Pastors at neighboring church buildings stated they had been surprised and dismayed upon listening to of Lozano’s arrest.
“It just reminds us of all the ways we have systems to protect children,” stated Tom Beasley, pastor at Hesperia Nation Church. He stated he didn’t know Lozano individually, nor did any of his congregants.
“We have to do our due diligence,” Beasley stated of his position as a pastor. “It is a broken world we live in.”
Lewis Busch, pastor of within sight Zion Lutheran Church and College, stated he felt “profound sadness” at listening to in regards to the arrest. He stated he additionally felt fear for younger public and nervousness in regards to the doable ramifications for ministry paintings.
“We’re about helping people and healing people,” Busch stated. He worries that Lozano’s arrest has additional sullied the recognition of clergy.
Zion Meeting Church of God Hesperia is protecting products and services in Lozano’s absence with intervening time pastor Henry Rodriguez in his park. Rodriguez didn’t reply to The Occasions’ request for remark, and the church’s Instagram and Fb pages were taken ill.
Since 2018, Lozano’s congregation have been renting field from Free Means Christian Church, in step with that church’s pastor, Stephen Feinstein. He stated he knew Zion Meeting Church of God Hesperia as a just right tenant that communicated neatly. The inside track “came as such a shock,” he stated.
He stated the Free Means Christian Church campus has safety cameras in just about each room, however legislation enforcement hasn’t requested for any video.
“Sexual abuse is a problem in every institutional setting,” Feinstein stated.
Native government imagine Lozano can have focused alternative sufferers, and officers are asking somebody with data to touch San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Deputy Frankie Zavala with the Hesperia station at (760) 947-1500 or to name an nameless tip layout at 1-800-78-CRIME (27463).
