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Teacher at Maryland church fondled two girls during prayers, police say

Maryland church teacher accused of sexually abused four girls ages 6 through 12, including two whom he fondled while children had their eyes shut during prayers.

By Dan Morse | 2024-03-13

A teacher at a Maryland church was ordered to remain in jail pending trial on charges of abusing children. (Dan Morse/The Washington Post)

A teacher at a small Maryland church sexually abused four girls ages 6 through 12, including two whom he fondled while children had their eyes shut during prayers, authorities alleged in court records.

Ervin J. Alfaro-Lopez, 33, was being held Wednesday without bond in the Montgomery County jail. He faces more than 20 counts of sex abuse and sex offense charges in incidents alleged to have occurred between 2014 and 2018.

Federal immigration authorities also moved this week to seek Alfaro-Lopez's deportation should he be released. They said Wednesday the Salvadoran national has unlawfully entered the United States three times and been the subject of two removal proceedings. He had most recently been living in Germantown.

In Montgomery County court documents, police did not name the church but said it was in the 15700 block of Crabbs Branch Way -- an office park near the Shady Grove Metro station. They said many of the incidents happened at the church.

An attorney listed in court records for Alfaro-Lopez wasn't immediately available for comment. Investigators said one of the victims described him as friendly, and another said he was manipulative.

Montgomery County detectives, along with the county's child welfare agency, began their investigation last May.

A social worker interviewed a potential victim, then a teenager, who spoke about several incidents involving Alfaro-Lopez when she was about 10 years old. In one case, the girl said, the two were in a room at the church with other children when he fondled her, detectives alleged in charging documents. She also recalled that during a retreat or a vigil, Alfaro-Lopez sexually assaulted her and told her to stay quiet so other children -- ages 4 to 11 and sleeping -- wouldn't wake up, according to an affidavit investigators filed in court.

The girl said she told an adult family member about the abuse in 2019 but was told to stay quiet about it "to minimize trouble with the church," detectives wrote.

Detectives charged Alfaro-Lopez with several counts, including second-degree rape, and he was placed in the Montgomery County Detention Center on Aug. 9, 2023, according to court records.

After Alfaro-Lopez was arrested in Montgomery County in 2023, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said, it lodged an immigration detainer against him with the Montgomery jail. That request, according to ICE, was not honored and Alfaro-Lopez was released on a $50,000 bond two days after his arrest. Montgomery officials did not immediately respond for comment.

Investigators continued investigating him after his initial release. In September 2023, they learned of another potential victim, who said Alfaro-Lopez abused her about seven years earlier during a "midnight mass" event, according to court documents. While children were in a dark room watching a movie, the girl told detectives, Alfaro-Lopez called her to the back of the room to sit on his lap and began fondling her, according to court records.

Investigators shielded the girls' privacy by not naming them in public court filings, and instead assigned letters to them.

"Victim A," they wrote of the girl allegedly abused during the midnight Mass event, "advised that another child looked back and saw what was happening, but she doesn't think he understood because he turned around and kept watching the movie."

The girl said it happened "on a Friday and that the Sunday, two days later, was her seventh birthday," detectives wrote.

The girl told detectives about similar abuse during a subsequent midnight Mass event, when Alfaro-Lopez again called her to the back of a room while other kids were watching a movie, according to court documents.

"Victim A reported that she told him, 'no,' but he called her over again, so she went," detectives asserted in court filings.

Investigators learned of two more potential victims, who are sisters and were interviewed last month. They spoke of being in a classroom at the church and Alfaro-Lopez fondling them during prayers, court documents said.

"Victim C reported that Alfaro-Lopez would make sure all the students in the class had their eyes closed," detectives wrote.

"Victim D" made the same assertion, saying Alfaro-Lopez made sure the other children couldn't see what he was doing. She also said that years ago, her sister had told her of being fondled by Alfaro-Lopez during prayers. Victim D said her sister was crying at the recollection and was scared to tell their parents.

Police again arrested Alfaro-Lopez this week on charges related to the three additional girls. He was ordered held without bond Tuesday.

The initial case from last year has a trial date set for Oct. 16, according to court records. No trial date has been set for the new charges.

One of the victims told investigators that at some point, Alfaro-Lopez wasn't allowed to teach at the church anymore. "Victim D stated that later Alfaro-Lopez had gotten deported but then he came back to the church," according to court records, which state he was born in El Salvador.

James Covington, a spokesman for the Baltimore office of ICE, said Alfaro-Lopez was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol near Lake Charles, La., on March 23, 2015, issued a notice to appear before an immigration judge and released on a $7,500.00 bond.

Three years later, he was ordered to be removed from the United States, leading ICE to arrest him in early 2019, Covington said. Alfaro-Lopez left the country three months later but crossed into the United States again in 2020 and was deported, ICE said. It was unclear how and when he most recently returned to the United States.


This article was downloaded by calibre from https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/03/13/montgomery-county-church-abuse-charges-teacher/


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