Former NEAB President Granted Bail After Rape and Sexual Assault Charges Surface

Tonight, the now-former President of the National Evangelical Association of Belize (NEAB), Pastor Victor Hernandez is out on bail after being taken to court for rape and sexual assault.  The kicker to the story, however, is that several of his colleagues in the religious community were aware of these incidents for about two years now.  Hernandez was taken to court this morning where he was arraigned for two counts of rape and one for sexual assault. The 65-year-old, who presides over the Toledo Faith Outreach Christian Center, was granted a conditional bail of ten thousand dollars plus one surety of the same amount. The charges come after a 38-year-old woman filed a complaint with the Punta Gorda Police, alleging that Hernandez raped her twice. The woman says the first instance was in August 2015 at a store the pastor once owned, and the second was in March 2016 at his home in Jacintoville, Toledo. The charge of sexual assault stems from an incident in 2021 when Hernandez reportedly grabbed the victim’s breast in the presence of the woman’s teenage daughter. With so many years passed since the incidents occurred, the victim explained to investigators that she did not report the matter because she was threatened, ashamed, and traumatized. She additionally noted that she did not want her family to know. An investigation was carried out along with consultations with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions which led to the pastor’s arrest. First Vice President of NEAB, Pastor Lance Lewis, spoke on the incident and says the association had begun its own investigation into these reports about two years ago.  He added that the investigation came to a standstill when Hernandez refused to cooperate.

Pastor Lance Lewis, First Vice President, NEAB: “Somebody from our group investigated it, it would appear that the person did not want to press anything at the time. Okay ? So there was one side against the other side and so there was a meeting but it wasn’t conclusive and so nothing could have come, there was no agreement but it was supposed to be another meeting. I was not involved in the meeting but persons from our group had heard a little hint and when they checked it the other side seemed to want to cooperate . In her report that there was some sort of fear so there’s nothing that could be done at the point and there was supposed to be another meeting but due to busyness perhaps on the part of the accused it did not happen. There was a constant things happening and the person not being available and the other person not coming forward and saying anything you know there could not be any definitive statement made. So we were in a limbo in a sense with nothing to say this is it and these are the charges. We were not hearing from the other side.”

Lewis says that NEAB has stripped Hernandez of his presidential seat and is working to assist the victim now that charges have been levied. 

Pastor Lance Lewis, First Vice President, NEAB: “We have removed the accused from being in the executive and we will be doing some, we’ll need to reach out to the person that is the victim. I don’t know how we will get there because I have no contact information. I don’t know if the persons who went there initially at the time when it was alleged have any contact information for the person who is the victim. So we don’t know yet but at least we’ll have try. I don’t think the names there of the victims but the accused name is there and so we would need to get to the person because I personally think that some serious counseling should be done and we need to move towards that then and we need to also have a real sit down with the person who is the victim of what is alleged to have taken place seemingly three times, you mentioned 2015, 2016, 2021. As I said I didn’t know about it as far as I can recall. We are in a fight these days. It’s a serious battle and the battle is as leaders and the battle is also among ourselves as individuals where If we are not careful we get involved in so many things that we don’t have enough time to strengthen our spiritual lives and that leaves the door open plus we have to be very careful when we are getting ourselves involved with the same sex or the opposite sex these days you have to be very careful. It’s just one of the things that we see coming more, the immoral situation has increased dramatically.”

Pastor Hernandez has become known in the news cycle as one of the religious representatives against the challenging of Section 53 legislation that saw same sex relations as criminal.  He was also vocal against the legalization of marijuana.