Sexual Assault in the church is rampant. Predators like Richard Galvan are attracted to positions in the church due to the easy access to young people, as well as the “forgiving” nature of most religious people. There is a great article written by a former FBI agent Joe Navarro regarding this very thing.
Texas Penal Code Sec. 22.011
Sexual Assault
There was no dispute or objection from Richard Galvan or Sonia Galvan that they were ministers at their church youth group. Therefore the complained of communication was “a communication made in connection with a matter of public concern,” and thus, an exercise of Blaine Crews’ right of free speech.
Here, Blaine communicated that: Richard had sex with Hannah when she was seventeen years old and prior to her senior year of high school; Richard was her youth minister and pastor; Richard Galvan sexually seduced Hannah under the pretense of spiritual healing; Richard offered Hannah help to heal spiritually and emotionally after her break up with her high school boyfriend; and Richard told Hannah she was entrusting him to help her heal by giving him her virginity. Under the Texas Penal Code, a sexual assault occurs if “the actor is a clergyman who causes the other person to submit or participate by exploiting the other person’s emotional dependency on the clergyman in the clergyman’s professional character as spiritual adviser.” TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 22.011(b)(10) (defining sexual assault by a clergyman)
A sexual assault under Subsection (a)(1) is without the consent of the other person if:
(1)
the actor compels the other person to submit or participate by the use of physical force, violence, or coercion;
(2)
the actor compels the other person to submit or participate by threatening to use force or violence against the other person or to cause harm to the other person, and the other person believes that the actor has the present ability to execute the threat;
(3)
the other person has not consented and the actor knows the other person is unconscious or physically unable to resist;
(4)
the actor knows that as a result of mental disease or defect the other person is at the time of the sexual assault incapable either of appraising the nature of the act or of resisting it;
(5)
the other person has not consented and the actor knows the other person is unaware that the sexual assault is occurring;
(6)
the actor has intentionally impaired the other persons power to appraise or control the other persons conduct by administering any substance without the other persons knowledge;
(7)
the actor compels the other person to submit or participate by threatening to use force or violence against any person, and the other person believes that the actor has the ability to execute the threat;
(8)
the actor is a public servant who coerces the other person to submit or participate;
(9)
the actor is a mental health services provider or a health care services provider who causes the other person, who is a patient or former patient of the actor, to submit or participate by exploiting the other persons emotional dependency on the actor;
(10)
the actor is a clergyman who causes the other person to submit or participate by exploiting the other persons emotional dependency on the clergyman in the clergymans professional character as spiritual adviser;
(11)
the actor is an employee of a facility where the other person is a resident, unless the employee and resident are formally or informally married to each other under Chapter 2 (Child in Relation to the Family), Family Code; or
(12)
the actor is a health care services provider who, in the course of performing an assisted reproduction procedure on the other person, uses human reproductive material from a donor knowing that the other person has not expressly consented to the use of material from that donor.
