A teacher at a Maryland church was ordered to remain in jail pending trial on charges of abusing children. 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.
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.
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.
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.“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.
“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.
Police again arrested Alfaro-Lopez this week on charges related to the three additional girls. He was ordered held without bond Tuesday.