A New York-based Catholic deacon was recently arrested for trying to arrange sex with a 14-year-old he met on Grindr.
According to prosecutors, Rogelio Vega, 50, of Maspeth, Queens, was in fact chatting up an undercover detective posing as a teen.
“This defendant by all outward appearances is a church-going family man,” said Queens DA Melinda Katz. “Sadly, the real person under the sheep’s clothing is an alleged sexual predator who sought out a teenage boy to fulfill his needs.”
Vega is…er, was, a deacon with Saint Sebastian Roman Catholic Church, and allegedly downloaded Grindr in July 2020 where he began communicating with the undercover officer he thought was a teenager. There, he allegedly asked for explicit photos, and sent several of himself.
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The chatting escalated until Vega, who is married with four children, pushed the “teen” to meet up in person for oral sex.
They agreed to meet at a pre-arranged location on January 19. Vega reportedly pulled up to the spot and flashed his headlights to signal he was there, at which time the detective entered the car and arrested him.
Vega was arraigned on one count each of attempted use of a child in a sexual performance, attempted criminal sexual act, attempted disseminating indecent material to a minor and attempted endangering the welfare of a child for which he faces up to seven years in prison. He was released on a $50,000 bond.
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
I despise religion and those who preach “thou art holier than thee and must follow my teachings lest ye enter the fires of hell” but in this guys case I feel VERY strongly, based on what was printed, that he was set up or maybe I’ve misread the article. It was the undercover officer who seemed to have come across pictures of a fourteen year old male to send to the guy and once the guy got all aroused by those pics he gets arrested in a “sting”? Ok, lets ask what would have happened had he not mailed those pics. Is it possible the guy would have kept searching until he found one of the tens of thousands of boys who ARE on the internet and readily available for sex or maybe he would have given up in frustration? I think the guy was set up.
Ambonec
No mention in the article about the Deacon ‘receiving’ any pictures
but he definitely sent ‘anatomy pics’ to the agent.
Den
The article is quite clear that Vega sent nudes to the “kid”, but there is no indication that the undercover cop sent pics in return. Although there was probably some sort of picture on the profile, the age of 14 obviously could not have been listed.
What is more important here is who first contacted who, and at what point the supposed age of 14 came out. This might have been entrapment, or not. It is not really clear from the article. But in any case, a 50 year old wanting to have sex with a 14 years old is pretty nasty.
jcool
i’m glad there was no grindr when i was 14. just went to the ymca, took long showers, let priests suck me, went home happy. nobody got busted
cuteguy
What a shocker that a cult leader turned out to be a pedophile.
Mister P
Stings should be outlawed.
LumpyPillows
I agree, they often stink of homophobia. They also create the opportunity for crime that might never happen otherwise. I would be especially critical of this if the teen approached him first on the app. The app clearly would not list his age as 14.
LumpyPillows
I hate these police stings that put opportunities like this in front of people that otherwise would not occur. No one underage should be on Grindr. That said, if he knew this person was 14, he has no real defense.
Harley
As soon as he was told his chat buddy was 14 he should have ended it there.
RandomGuy
It’s always the holier than thou ones that turn out to be creeps.
Randumb2020
Are we reading the same article?! This guy is a church leader that publicly condemns homosexuality. Married with four children. Then in private he’s Not trying to hook up with an adult, but with what he thinks is a 14-year-old. The man is a pedophile if he’s trying to hook up with 14-year-olds.I think the big take away from this is it’s another of the many many cases where either church leaders or politicians publicly bash gays and fight hard to take away our rights meanwhile in private they are either closeted gay or even worse, someone that would give us a bad name because the large majority of pedophiles are straight married men with children.
Den
Nowhere in this article does it say the Vega “publicly condemns homosexuality”. So that seems to be simply an assumption of yours.
Catholic lay leaders do not necessarily follow the hard line, some devout Catholics support both reproductive choice and same sex marriage.
Also, a 14 year old is quite likely to have secondary sexual characteristics, ie: pubic and armpit hair, descended testicles. Exactly the things actual pedophiles hate and avoid (which is why most pedophiles don’t care if they are abusing boys or girls). Lets try and know what words mean when we use them.
Potential Statutory Rapist, Potential Sexual Predator and hypocrite are better ways to describe this guy. Not quite as hateful as a pedophile.
TomG
I think that police pretending to young underage guys is entrapment. However, we already KNOW that priests have attractions to young boys for some reason.
Den
Whether or not it would stand up in court as entrapment depends on who contacted who first. And possibly at what point Vega learned the “kid” was supposedly 14. The grindr profile would have had to say the “kid” was 18.
Openminded
Den, no legal expert here, but I would think it doesn’t really matter who reached out to who first. It’s safe to assume everyone on Grindr is at least 18 or misrepresenting the truth. The real question to me is when and/or if the accused was ever told the age of the person he was trying to pick up. It’s probably going to be hard to convict if the accused was never told the age and only went by pics submitted by the undercover cop. I saw one guy who had photo I.D. to prove he was 20 but I swear he looked like and had a voice that sounded like he wasn’t a day over 12. Drove a great big dually truck to his job at an electrical parts supply house. My point is, at what point does one know without a doubt what a person’s actual age is and like this guy I just described, is it unlawful to have sex with someone who looks underage? IF the undercover cop submitted a fake I.D. as proof of adult age, then I would think all bets are off for a conviction. Still creepy to me that people find sexual stimulation from being with kids.
Kangol2
He’s not a priest, he’s a married (to a woman) deacon, with children. The Roman Catholic Church and its hierarchy are anti-gay, even if many practicing Catholics and Pope Francis are not. Sting or not, Vega was seeking to have sex with a 14-year-old, which is a child under most US law, including New York, and he mailed sexually explicit pictures to that child. He’s toast.
Celtic
This happens far more often than is reported. I suspect those self-righteous Suth’n Baptists are into that pubescent flesh, too. Evangullibles of every stripe are the world’s greatest hypocrites and its worst danger.
ffmikey
The majority of child molesters are not priests, teachers or coaches. The greatest number are grandfathers, followed by uncles and siblings. The Catholic Church has taken a huge hit in part because of it’s deep pockets. Most allegations are made many years after the alleged act occurred where the priest is either deceased or to senile to defend themselves. Yes, there have been cover ups but that is now in the past due to the efforts of Pope Francis. Last year a retired and well respected Cardinal was stripped of his title, benefits and ex-communicated due to his cover ups and alleged sexual abuse of seminarians. Cardinal Mahony emeritus of Los Angeles has been stripped of most of his duties by Arch Bishop Gomez of Los Angeles. And at the 2000 meeting of American Cardinals and Bishops a great deal of time was devoted to the issue of child abuse within the church and at the insistence of the Holy Father a comprehensive major was passed to address it.
Van Hyde
Tale as old as time…
Openminded
Yup. At least it’s a bit comforting to know this was brought out into the light unlike what used to happen in the Catholic Church.
Doug
Wow. This continues to happen over and over in the church. I don’t understand what these people are thinking when they decide to become priests or deacons. It’s getting really creepy.
blackhook
Just end the #CatholicCriminalEmpire now! Who is dumb enough to $upport these weirdos & their bizarre superstitions, myths & fairy tales — not to mention, unending child abuse by 1000’s of priests. The Virgin Mary anyone LOL! Hocus pocus dominocus indeed!
Den
Interesting to note that Mississippi allows girls to marry at 15,
New Hampshire at 13 and
Massachusetts at 12, and
California has no stated lower limit.
This is with parental permission, but still seems to turn a blind eye to child sexual abuse, forced marriage, and possible trafficking (selling young girls into marriage as might be seen in underdeveloped countries).
The ages for boys are usually two or three years older (generally the same age as the age of sexual consent), given that boys are traditionally more valued.
Essie
This shit isn’t even shocking anymore. Next!!
ffmikey
The Catholic Church does officially oppose homosexuality, they oppose engaging in sexual acts outside of marriage which they do not recognize. Some catholics including priest do condemn homosexuality but that is not the official stance the church has taken. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the rule book, section 2358 states: The number of men and women who have deep seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. They do not choose their homosexual condition; for most of them it is a trail. They must be accepted with respect , compassion, and sensitivity.
strap2900
Something fishy here. Everyone on Grindr is supposed to be 18, so the cop lied and entrapped him, which isn’t surprising.