LAREDO, Texas — A Texas pastor faces sexual assault charges after investigators say he allegedly raped a special-needs woman.
According to the Laredo Morning Times, deputies responded to a home on the south end of Laredo on March 2, 2022, on reports of a woman who had reportedly been assaulted.
The Morning Times reported that 58-year-old Jorge Ariel Benavides, pastor of Iglesia Cristiana Casa de Dios Church, picked up the woman on February 1 and took her to a ranch in Las Lomas. It was there, that the victim said that Benavides made her undress and then sexually assaulted her twice.
The ranch, reports say, was a property that belonged to the church.
Benavides told authorities that the woman was the foster child of his deceased wife and denied any wrongdoing.
The pastor remains free on a $100,000 bond.