LONG BEACH — A 68-year-old former Long Beach priest was sentenced today to one year of sex offender counseling and ordered to register for life as a sex offender after he pleaded no contest to sexually molesting three teen girls, the District Attorney’s Office announced.
Luis Jose Cuevas, who served at St. Anthanasius Catholic Church in Long Beach for seven years, was placed on five years felony probation after he admitted groping a 14-year-old girl in 2010 and twin sisters, who were 19 at the time of the groping, said Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Zepeda.
Superior Court Judge Jesse Rodriguez also ordered Cuevas to complete 40 hours of community service and to stay away from the three victims for five years.
Prior to being sentenced, Zepeda read a victim impact statement from the twin sisters, who said they see life very differently now as a result of the assault.
“God be with you because you need him now more than we do,” they said in their statement.
Zepeda said all three victims were pleased with his plea and sentence because it spared them from having to testify at a preliminary hearing.
Cuevas pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor counts of sex assault involving two women in February, 2012, and one felony count of a lewd act on a child that occurred in July, 2010. All three incidents involved Cuevas fondling the three victims over their clothes.
Cuevas becomes the seventh priest prosecuted and convicted of sexual molestation by the District Attorney’s Office since 2006.
