Imperial Valley Ministries is accused of recruiting homeless people, holding them against their will and forcing them to panhandle
From San Diego to Texas, homeless people were cajoled into vans with promises of food and shelter.
A man who answered the phone at the church headquarters in El Centro Tuesday afternoon said the organization had no comment. San Diego’s homeless population was particularly ripe for recruitment, with church members even approaching people who were seeking services at Father Joe’s Villages, Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Tenorio, who is leading the prosecution, said in a news conference held in the city of Imperial.“We encountered people who were exploited simply because they were down on their luck or simply because they were homeless and needed a place to sleep and eat,” Tenorio said.
One 17-year-old girl at a group home for women in El Centro escaped by breaking a window and running to a neighbor’s home, authorities said. She was treated at a nearby hospital for cuts suffered in the escape. The church leaders turned to psychological coercion to prevent people from leaving, including threats that their children would be taken away, that their loved ones had rejected them and that “only God” loved them, according to the indictment.
The FBI served search warrants on the El Centro headquarters and group homes in May 2018, providing the backbone of the investigation.
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