Ruben A. Garcia was an associate pastor at Betania Baptist Church in Austin, Texas. He was arrested in 2017 for sexually assaulting two children. He was charged with two counts of sexual assault of a child and one count of indecency with a child by sexual contact. When he was arrested for one investigation, they discovered there was a warrant for his arrest for another investigation in another county into child sexual assault.
He avoided jail time in a plea deal where he pled guilty to enticing a child. That’s not considered a sex crime so no requirement to register as a sex offender was imposed. He was sentenced to ten years deferred adjudication which means if he goes ten years without offending, there will be no conviction on his record at all.
- KXAN: Associate pastor of east Austin church charged with sexual assault of child
- KVUE: Austin pastor takes plea deal for luring child, avoids prison after sex assault charges reduced
Austin, Texas · Tuesday, June 13, 2017