Florida police charge Assemblies of God pastor with failing to report child sex abuse

This article is part of “Pastors and Prey,” a series investigating sex abuse allegations in the Assemblies of God.

Police in Florida have charged a prominent Assemblies of God pastor with “knowingly and willfully” failing to report allegations of child sex abuse to authorities.

Mark Vega, 55, senior pastor of Ignite Life Center church in Gainesville and a former chaplain for the New York Yankees, “intentionally endeavored” to prevent reports of sex abuse at his church from reaching police, according to an Aug. 20 complaint filed in Alachua County Circuit Court. Under Florida law, any person with knowledge of child abuse is required to report to authorities; failure to do so is a felony.

Vega, who has not been arrested, did not respond to messages from NBC News. A spokesperson for the Gainesville Police Department told NBC News the charge was submitted to the state attorney’s office. Officials there did not respond to messages.

The criminal filing follows years of sex abuse and cover-up allegations at a school and youth camp run by Ignite Life Center, which is affiliated with the Assemblies of God, the world’s largest Pentecostal denomination.

Since 2023, three youth leaders from Ignite, including Vega’s son, have been charged with sexually abusing minors during church activities. Meanwhile, the families of six alleged victims have filed lawsuits accusing Ignite and the Florida Multicultural District — a regional Assemblies of God body that oversees church affairs in the state — of negligence in failing to protect children from being molested.

Vega received reports of abuse starting in 2019, according to the criminal complaint, but witnesses told investigators he repeatedly sought to handle the allegations internally rather than notify police, allowing more students to be harmed. In 2022, after Vega’s adult son and another man were accused of coercing underage girls to have sex with them, Vega met with the family of an alleged victim and came up with a plan to avoid taking the matter to police, the complaint said.

Jessica Arbour, a lawyer representing five alleged victims, said Vega and other church leaders engaged in a “pattern and practice of ignoring, and in some cases actively covering up,” evidence of abuse.

“Child sexual abuse happens not just because of abusers, but also because of systemic failures that make the abusers feel that it is safe to abuse kids,” Arbour said in a statement. “My clients are encouraged to see that law enforcement is taking their allegations seriously.”

Ignite Life Center and the Florida Multicultural District agreed to settle three of the lawsuits. Both have denied wrongdoing in court filings.

Do you have a story to share about the Assemblies of God’s handling of sex abuse allegations? Email reporter Mike Hixenbaugh.

In a statement, the Assemblies of God’s national office said that it “takes matters of this nature seriously” and that it has “a well-established process to address them.” It referred questions about Vega to the Florida Multicultural District, which it said would be responsible for any internal investigation into Vega’s actions. The district office and Ignite Life Center did not respond to messages.

Vega’s legal troubles come as the Assemblies of God faces growing criticism over its handling of sex abuse. The denomination, based in Springfield, Missouri, has nearly 3 million members at 13,000 churches in the United States.

In May, an NBC News investigation uncovered how Assemblies of God leaders dismissed repeated child sex abuse allegations against a charismatic children’s pastor named Joe Campbell in the 1980s, allowing him to remain in ministry for years as more alleged victims came forward. Last month, NBC News revealed that several Assemblies of God pastors guided hundreds of teens and college students to Daniel Savala, a former missionary and convicted sex offender who is charged with sexually abusing boys in his backyard sauna. Senior Assemblies of God leaders were warned repeatedly about Savala but failed to cut off his influence, the reporting showed.

In response, abuse survivors and advocates have called on the Assemblies of God to commission an independent review of its handling of sex abuse allegations nationwide. Denomination leaders addressed the allegations against Savala at their biennial meeting last month, pledging to take steps to prevent similar abuses in the future.

Vega has been held up as a minister to emulate within the Assemblies of God. He began working as a chaplain for the Yankees in 1999, according to news reports, and forged a relationship with Hall of Fame pitcher Mariano Rivera, who has spoken at national Assemblies of God gatherings and helps lead a church in New York. A representative for the Yankees did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Vega started Ignite Life Center in 2007 and, with his wife, launched the Ignite School of Ministry, which aims to prepare young people to serve in ministry. Teens and young adults travel from across the country to participate in the program. Vega also became a chaplain with the Gainesville Police Department.

Over the past decade, a cascade of abuse allegations have hit Ignite Life Center, leading to lawsuits accusing Rivera, Vega and others of failing to report and prevent abuse.

In a pair of civil complaints filed in Florida and New York, a mother alleges that her 10-year-old daughter traveled from Rivera’s church in New York to participate in an Ignite summer camp in 2018 at the urging of the retired Yankees pitcher. The lawsuits allege that after an older teen sexually abused the woman’s daughter at Ignite, Rivera and his wife sought to silence the girl and Vega was negligent in failing to protect her.

The Riveras did not respond to messages sent to their church in New York; their lawyer has described the allegations against them as “completely false.”

A year later, in 2019, according to Vega’s criminal complaint, he and other church leaders were notified that Gabriel Hemenez, a 26-year-old youth leader who attended the Ignite School of Ministry, had sexually abused a 22-year-old student during a road trip. After the alleged victim came forward to church leaders, Vega told the student he would “take care of it,” the complaint said.

But Vega allowed Hemenez to remain in the program and continue working with children, police say.

In the years that followed, from 2021 to 2022, several students say Hernandez abused them at the church. In total, at least five other students — all boys under age 17 — accused Hemenez of sexually abusing them at Ignite, according to additional police reports obtained by NBC News. The alleged victims say Hemenez groped their genitals while they slept in their bunks or abused them in the bathroom or elsewhere on church property.

Over the same years, four girls told investigators they were pressured into having sex with Christian Vargas, Vega’s son, who was a youth leader in the church. The alleged abuse occurred when Vargas was still a minor and, in one case, continued after he turned 18, according to police reports. One of the girls told authorities that she also was coerced into having sex with Noel Cruz, an adult youth leader at the church and son of another Ignite pastor.

Allegations of abuse by Vargas and Cruz reached Vega in November 2022, according to police reports. In response, the reports say, Vega and other church leaders held a meeting with Vargas, Cruz, one of the girls accusing them and her parents. At the meeting, Vega laid out a plan to handle the matter internally, because “jail would not resolve the issue,” the girl later told police. Instead, Vega said Vargas and Cruz would begin a “process of restoration” overseen by the church, because “we’re brothers and sisters; we’re a church,” according to the criminal complaint.

The girl’s parents recalled meeting again with Vega and other church leaders a few months later to voice frustration with the decision not to go to the police. This time, the parents told police, the tone of the meeting was “intimidating.” Vega asked the child’s father whether “he really wants to get authorities involved,” saying that doing so would “ruin” the lives of everyone involved, according to the police report. Vega then told the father that the church had already restored Vargas and Cruz, the police report said.

Despite Vega’s efforts to handle the matter in-house, the alleged victims began speaking to police in February 2023, resulting in criminal charges against Hemenez, Vargas and Cruz.

Hemenez pleaded no contest last year to two counts of lewd molestation of a child under the age of 17 and is awaiting trial on three additional charges filed this year. Cruz pleaded no contest in January to sexual battery of a child under the age of 17. And Vargas has pleaded not guilty to lewd battery.

Vega has continued to preach at Ignite in the weeks after the criminal charge was filed against him. In a sermon streamed to Facebook on Aug. 31, he told the congregation that to follow Jesus, they must learn to be humble, to take responsibility for their actions and to put relationships with their brothers and sisters in Christ first, even ahead of the church.

“Saying ‘I’m sorry’ comes easy when you understand relationships are more important than ministries,” Vega said. “Jesus didn’t die for ministries. He died for people.”