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California Priest Arrested on Suspicion of Child Abuse

He was booked on 30 counts of suspicion of abuse.

A priest in Oakland, California, has been arrested on charges of lewd and lascivious acts with a child, NBC News reports. The Rev. Hector David Mendoza-Vela, 42, was booked on 30 counts of suspicion of abuse of a single child over an 18-month period beginning in 2016. Michael C. Barber, the bishop of Oakland, said in a letter to local parishioners that Mendoza-Vela has been immediately suspended while the investigation proceeds. “While we do not have all the details, the alleged behavior is in clear violation of the diocese’s code of conduct and the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” he wrote. Mendoza-Vela was the the parish administrator at Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Fremont. He’s being detained in an Alameda County jail on $900,000 bond, pending an arraignment on Tuesday. The alleged abuse reportedly began when Mendoza-Vela was working at St. John’s Catholic Church in San Lorenzo.

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