A 38-year-old priest who worked in Long Beach and Oxnard was arrested this week on suspicion of possessing hundreds of images and videos depicting child sexual abuse.
A Catholic priest in Long Beach was arrested on suspicion of possessing child pornography after a months-long investigation, according to the Ventura County district attorney’s office.
Rodolfo Martinez-Guevara, 38, of Long Beach was most recently a minister with the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit religious order, according to a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He had previously served as a transitional deacon and newly ordained priest with Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Oxnard from July 2021 through September 2022, the spokesman said.
Martinez-Guevara first came under scrutiny after several anonymous reports were made to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. A separate investigation was launched in April by the Ventura County Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force.The investigations found Martinez-Guevara had more than 600 images of child sex abuse, prosecutors say, including images and videos of victims under the age of 12.
“As a priest, the defendant is in a position of tremendous power, authority and trust,” Ventura County Dist. Atty. Erik Nasarenko said in a statement. “The alleged crimes deeply violate that trust and involve a disturbing number of sexual images of young boys.”
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