Federal prosecutors believe that Rogelio Vega, a church deacon from Queens, should serve 30 years in federal prison for seducing three adolescent boys he met online into engaging in sexual activity with him.
Pleading Guilty
According to NY Daily News, after pleading guilty to three counts of enticing a juvenile to engage in sexual behavior in September of last year, Vega, now 52 years old, is scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday, Mar. 15, in the Brooklyn Federal Court.
Ex-deacon Vega served the St. Sebastian Roman Catholic Church in Woodside as his church's ministry. In January 2021, he was discovered as a sexual predator when he was caught in a sting operation trying to induce a detective, whom he believed to be a 14-year-old kid, to perform oral sex with him.
Vega, a resident of Maspeth, exchanged sexually explicit conversations with the undercover cop for months and shared images of his genitals while communicating with the undercover officer over the dating website Grindr.
They arranged to meet in Queens, and when the cop, who appeared to be a young lad, got into Vega's car, Vega allegedly remarked that he enjoyed "top and oral" and then grasped and massaged the inside of the officer's left thigh.
In October 2021, he entered a guilty plea in Queen's court. He was sentenced to ten years of probation and classified as a sexual offender.
Nevertheless, federal prosecutors surprised him by filing additional accusations against him when he was scheduled to enter a guilty plea. His confiscated mobile phone contained proof that he had been in contact with several other victims.
In addition, between 2015 and 2021, Vega had several separate encounters with the boys. During that time, he engaged in sexual activities with them. The victims' ages ranged from 14 to 16 during the attack.
The former deacon contacted the lads through the homosexual hookup app Grindr and the messaging service Kik, both popular among teenagers and young adults. On Grindr, the ex-deacon said he was interested in "young guys."
Prosecutors claim that Vega, who is married and has four children, had sexual meetings with the youngsters in his car or at motels after initially meeting them.
Tracking Gay Priests
Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal, Colorado-based Catholic organizations, spent millions of dollars to acquire data identifying priests who used gay hookups and dating apps, Crossmap reported.
The project has cost the organization at least four million dollars so far. It has distributed the information to many bishops spread out over the country.
The goal of the initiative is to "empower the church to carry out its mission" and to provide bishops with "evidence-based materials" so they can discover different areas of weakness in the training that is currently being provided.
This time, it is impossible to predict how the data will influence priests. The information that was gathered through the Renewal initiative has the potential to prohibit Catholic members from gaining promotions or cause them to be required to retire earlier than expected.
Catholic group spend millions to track gay priests using apps
