Thursday, July 17, 2025

Priest sentenced to 15 years for sexual assault of minor

A Catholic priest has been sentenced to 15 years in jail without parole for the sexual assault of a minor at a Coahuila seminary.

Juan Manuel “Padre Meño” Riojas Martínez was sentenced yesterday by a court in Coahuila that had issued a guilty verdict last week.

At the time of the crime Riojas was the director of a seminary in Piedras Negras and his victim was one of the minors in his care.

The sentence was handed down in a unanimous decision by the three judges overseeing the case after a seven-hour hearing.

The prosecution sought a sentence of 23 years, while the defense asked for a lesser sentence and an order that the priest wear an ankle bracelet and not serve the time in a penal facility. Both were denied.

Riojas has been in prison since August 2017 when he turned himself in after being a fugitive from justice for more than five months.

Riojas was also ordered to pay compensation, the amount of which will be established later by the court.

The plaintiff in the case, Roberto Javier Calzada Tamez, filed a formal complaint against Riojas in 2017, an accusation that preceded another by Ignacio Martínez Pacheco, who declared that Riojas abused him when he was 15 years old.

Since then, 11 accusations of pedophilia have been filed against Riojas and five other Catholic priests, leading to claims of a veiled “network of pedophiles” in the Catholic church in Coahuila.

The case is considered historic in the northern state as the bishop of Piedras Negras, Alonso Garza Treviño, was summoned as a witness, along with several priests and Riojas himself.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
two people walkin gby a for rent sign

Can rent control stop gentrification? Mexico City officials plan to find out

2
Political leaders in the nation's capital have reached into their anti-gentrification toolkit and come up with an approach that goes straight to the heart of the problem.
cell phone with Uber

Mexican authorities slam Uber’s price hike: ‘Unilateral and irresponsible’

0
The ride-hailing app insists that the rise is necessary after recent labor reforms gave its drivers full employee rights, including IMSS membership.
The achoque is a critically endangered salamander that’s the cousin of the famous axolotl.

Lake Pátzcuaro’s fishermen answer call to rescue the achoque, the axolotl’s endangered cousin

2
Fishermen in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, have teamed up with local scientists to raise achoque hatchlings and re-release them into the lake in an effort to stabilize their declining population.
BETA Version - Powered by Perplexity