Former assistant pastor found guilty of misdemeanour sexual abuse while in prison for child sexual abuse

Vazquez was convicted in 2019 of four felony counts of child sexual abuse

Vazquez has been served a 180 day sentence on top of his 15 years in prison (AFP via Getty Images)

A former assistant pastor at a Catholic church in Northwest Washington who is serving a prison sentence for sexually abusing children was found guilty Monday in a separate case of sexually abusing an adult parishioner, officials said.

After a one-day trial in D.C. Superior Court and hearing a victim impact statement, Judge Juliet McKenna sentenced Urbano Vazquez, 49, to the maximum sentence of 180 days on one count of misdemeanor sexual abuse, officials said. That term will be served consecutively to a 15-year sentence that was imposed after Vazquez was convicted in 2019 of four felony counts of child sexual abuse, according to a statement by the District’s US Attorney Matthew Graves and Police Chief Robert Contee.

The abuse of the woman occurred in April 2017 during a confession at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, the statement said.

According to the government’s evidence, the statement said, Vazquez “twice touched the adult parishioner’s breast, over her sweater” without her consent and had made comments before about “her appearance and marital status”. The woman told her mother “immediately”, and she advised her to stay away from Vazquez, and in 2018, when Vazquez was accused of sexual abuse against child parishioners, the woman told another priest who notified law enforcement, the release said.

Vazquez was found guilty in August 2019 and sentenced in November 2019 to 15 years in prison for sexually abusing a 13 year old girl and a 9 year old girl. The abuse occurred from 2015 to 2017, the statement said.

Mr Graves and Mr Contee said in the statement that Vazquez was indicted on the misdemeanor sexual abuse charge of the adult parishioner when he was indicted on the felony child sexual abuse charges. The adult case and the case involving children proceeded separately, the statement said.

Vazquez worked in the DC archdiocese but was ordained as a priest by the Friars Minor Capuchin, a religious order. The Capuchins could not immediately be reached Tuesday and his clerical status wasn’t clear.

An attorney for Vazquez did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Washington Post