S26 Ep3: Hit Him with a Trifecta

If you love something was wrong and want to help support the show and listen ad-free, become a community contributor on Apple Podcasts, or purchase a sticker from our sticker shop at BrokenCycleMedia.com. Thank you so much. Something was wrong is intended for mature audiences and includes topics that may be upsetting. This season we'll be discussing friendship, a trail, religious abuse, stalking, sexual assault, and other serious topics, so please listen with care. Some names have been changed for safety or anonymity purposes. The podcast and any linked materials should not be misconstrued as a substitution for legal or medical advice. These and resources can be found in the episode notes. Honestly on something was wrong. I remember she just sat on my bed for hours, remembering all of the stuff that she had never put together before, how she has been essentially stalking her and she didn't even realize it. Later that night we were in my living room watching a movie and her phone dings again. And so we literally watched him live, breaking into her home for a second night in a row. I get a phone call shortly after that 911 call from an investigator who ended up being the investigator for this case. He asked a lot of questions, who this man was, what the relationship was, I said he was my pastor. It's you right there, zoom glasses and everything. You're wearing the same clothes. Go on right in the back door, because you used to live there, you know her, help us help you. Like why are you going? That's not me. That is you. It wouldn't just randomly come over to your house. This is you walking down the street. We're in the exact same outfit that you're wearing right now, just with a jacket on, in the same van, in the same van. Yeah, we have your own camera last night doing it too. And there's a camera in the house that has your face in it. Just take a seat right there on the hood of my car. Yeah, right there. No, you don't have any weapons or anything on you? No, I don't care. Okay. Are you okay if I patch you down and make sure you don't have any weapons? Okay. I'm going to just check back here mostly where your hands are. Okay. Make sure you don't have any knives. This is just cell phone. Yeah. Okay. What's your name again? Officer McLeod. Do you know Marie? I know Marie. Okay. How do you know her? She from church. From church? Are you a pastor? Who? Okay. What church do you go to? Thomas Road. Thomas Road? Okay. So if she goes there with you? No. She used to go there. Okay. Do you all like conversate, do you guys text or keep up on social media and nothing like that? Nothing like that. But you know where she lives? I know. I know. No. Okay. How long have you known Marie? I don't know 10 years later. 10 years. Okay. Does your wife know Marie? Yes. Yeah. So you guys all go to church together? No. You have to go to my church anymore. Okay. I knew when she went to church. Okay. But she doesn't go anymore. No. Okay. Okay. But why am I being detained? Yeah. So you're detained right now. Yeah. Why are you being detained? Yeah. Because we have a video of you breaking into the house. But it. Okay. You're going into a house that you don't have permission to be in. Unless that's not the case, did Marie give you permission to go into the house? I didn't go into the house. Okay. So I have, I have a video and one that I just showed you. Yeah. And then we're waiting on more videos of you inside the house, like video cameras of your face in the house. Okay. So obviously everything is reported, right? And then we have videos of you in the house. This video is not going to look good because I'm asking you, I'm giving you the chance to say, hey, yes, I just went into the house. Here's the reason I went in the house, right? Okay. And what difference makes when I have an attorney, I'll know that. What do you mean? You said that. You said I'd have a right to an attorney. Yeah. You can have an attorney whenever-- What? Let me explain. Okay. Yeah. You have the right to an attorney whenever. Those are the rights that he read, right? So you don't, if you don't want to, you don't have to talk to me. We're just giving you the opportunity to talk to us about what is the situation-- That's what I'm asking you. Look, an attorney is going to sit there and talk for you. Okay. Whereas right now, we're just talking. You're not under arrest right now. Right now, you're just detained. Okay. Do you know the difference between those two? No. Okay. So right now, you're detained. You're in handcuffs, right? Yes. Depending on how the scenario goes, we could take the handcuffs off, and you could go home. All right. If you're under arrest, there is no other option, right? If I say you're under arrest for X, Y, and Z, you're going to jail, right? Okay. I'm going to put you in my patrol car and we're going to go down to the jail. You're going to get charged with whatever you're being charged with, right? Whereas right now, we're just having a conversation. Okay. You're not under arrest. Okay. Right. At this point, you're not going to jail. Okay. Thank you. So we're just talking about the events and why it happened. So from our perspective, we have video. We have somebody saying that you drive a white man, I do drive a white man. And then you entering the house. So what we're trying to figure out, and that's one of my partners was elaborating on, was we're trying to figure out why you went in the house. We already know you went in the house. We're just trying to figure out why. Okay. Did you go in there? Because there's, like he was saying, there's different crimes depending on the reason behind you, why you were going in the house, right? Okay. So if you went in there to steal something, that's very different than if you went in there to assault somebody, right? So those are two very different charges, two very different scenarios, right? So we already know the players, we already know what happened, we're trying to figure out why it happened. So we're trying to give you the opportunity to tell us why, because you're the only person that knows. And we don't. Thank you so much. So, how long have you been a pastor at T.R.C.? Uh, 15 years. 15? What role are you in there? Uh, I work with Hispanics. With Hispanics? It's awesome. You guys still have church and, um, page shabber? Yeah. So, if you weren't coming from where were you coming from? There was a missionary house in white. And where? The white street? Where is that from here? It's a, uh, it's close to. So, um, what kind of, what do they do there? It's a missionary house. So, it's just, are there missionaries in it right now? No, not right now. The, we host missionaries there, we were hosting a missionary that left today. Okay. So, you just, what were you doing over there? Uh, cleaning the house. Okay. Okay. And I can prove that I can go in. Okay. Do they have cameras or anything at that house? I don't know. Okay. But, uh, I, uh, I have a key to that house. To. Yeah. Okay. Mm. Made sense. You want to hang tight with him for a second? So, this is. You were supposed to. Yeah. This is Sergio. Um, he's one of the Hispanic pastors at TRBC. Uh. Okay. And obviously, but I told you last thing. They were talking to wife. He pulled up as we were pulling up. Yeah, because I heard he guys were out with the house. Yeah. So, what's his story? So, he's saying he was never in the house. He didn't go to that house. He's saying he does know who Maria is. And he's saying that he was over on White Street. Cleaning a missionary house. He has a key for, and all that kind of stuff. So, I asked her, the wife, like, what was he doing? Like, you know, last night, like, where did she sit? Oh, since he, he helps missionary families find housing. So, she said that, oh, somewhere near Thomas Road, like, he took these people and put them in the house. Like, this is what he was saying. So, he obviously. It wasn't home so obviously, it wasn't like she was like, "Oh no, he was home with me." He was like, "Where was my phone?" - Yeah. Sergio, this is a video of you inside Marie's kitchen. Boom. That's you with your phone light on. Looking right at the camera and then you go back downstairs. This was last night. So this is the second night in a row that you've gone over to Marie's house and entered without permission. So here's your chance. Why? Are you going in there to steal stuff? Are you going in there to take personal items or, like what's the deal? Nothing? Okay. We said you're a pastor so I won't lecture you on, on what the word says because you already know what it says. Truth is truth, right? - Correct. - And the truth comes out regardless, right? - Right. - What else does it say about truth? - Killer truth. - Says it'll set you free, right? Clearly you've got a burden. Clearly you've got something you've been on. And the only way to get out of it, the only way to release that burden is to start telling the truth. And that's really what it comes down to. - I never said. - Like what my partner said when we got here. We already knew the answer. We didn't just pick this house out at random, right? We were coming here to talk to you. We're coming here to find you. - Yeah, I understand. - That's the piece that you got to make between you and God, right? - Correct. - So do that what you will. If you don't want to talk to me about it, that's fine. But obviously I've got all the evidence I need. - Right. - I don't care. - So that is what it is, okay? So, if at any point you decide you want to tell me the truth, you let this officer know he'll come get me, okay? - I think the classification for this talking on his, yeah, I think you're right. I think we hit him with a trifect. - I should have met you, yeah. - I said you don't have any insights. And then I lectured him on how the truth sets you free. And he said I understand. But he doesn't want to say anything. - I wouldn't question you. - I'm gonna make another one more time for you. - Yeah, I'm sure she wants to see the video. - I sure, you're gonna get rid of the-- - Oh yeah, I'll go. - Yeah, you're gonna get rid of this one too. - Yeah. - So, this is the video from last night. - This is Marie's kitchen, this is a video camera from her kitchen. - You see the motion capture, the reason he's paying attention to it is it's a motion-activated camera. So, he sees the movement and then freaks out and then it heads back out. So. - They're happy now that time? - Yeah, this was yesterday, a little after 11 o'clock. So, I know you're concerned about the other angles, but that is without question. - Okay. - So. - Can I see the other one with the card? - So, this video's not as good. - I'm gonna pause it, you can see the back of your van or what we assume is your van. - Right there. - Can I talk to him? - Yeah, that's the-- - Oh, what's gonna happen? - No, that's-- - So, he's likely gonna be placed under arrest for breaking and entering with intent to give him a mismainer and soften 'cause this is the second night that it's happened. - Because that happened last night-- - Last night, and tonight. - So, this is two nights in a row that he's done that. - So, this happened tonight in the other video-- - That video happened last night. - Last night. - Yes, the one where it's him inside the house, like, inside, she called the police last night and then when she saw him on the video, we get there and then he was gone. And I think the reason he left so quickly is because he realized that there was a video camera inside the residence and he exits back down. I'm not sure why that he did the same thing tonight. That part is what we're trying to figure out. - He did what he said. - He didn't go upstairs tonight. He just entered the basement this evening. So, it's possible, obviously. He saw the camera the night before and then quickly exits. So, he goes back in tonight and he just doesn't go to the second level. 'Cause there's no video. He's captured-- He's captured coming in the back door to the basement, but he's not captured upstairs in the house. - So, that's one of the concerns that, like I said, I have is that it appears that there's some history that with this female from some years back. And we hear that he may have been there to hurt her or something of that nature. Or that if he wasn't there to hurt her then there's some sort of interest in her because they have not had contact in a very long time. Like a very long time he says, they used to go to the church together and then something happened that made her very uncomfortable and so she stopped and she decided not to press charges. She says that this has happened years ago or she got home sometime during the day unexpectedly and found him in her living room on her laptop. I think it probably should have been done and documented years ago if you speak with him or what I would ask you is that you keep the conversation in English so that way you can understand something. Like, can you do that? - Oh, so I have to talk in front of you guys. - Yes, he's in our custody. The only way that you're gonna get that is as you talk it in that, yeah. 'Cause if you speak in front of us, if you're uncomfortable doing that, then that is fine. But if you speak to him and all that has to be in our presence. - Because I want, if I speak what? - If you speak to him and all it has to be in our presence. - Because he's in custody right now. - In what's the next step? - Well, he's gonna be placed under arrest. - And then? - He'll stand trial and whether or not he gets out on that or not is up to the judge in the magistrate. He may sit in jail until trial or he may be released on a bond and to somebody else's custody. - This is crazy, are you saying? - I know, I know, I can't imagine. It makes a whole lot of sense. I'm still trying to grab my mind around why somebody who has a wonderful family at home, a good reputation in the community and something like that. If there was not video evidence, most people would not believe it, right? Like if we didn't have it on video, I wouldn't expect you to believe it. - This is crazy, guys. - I know, I can't imagine how you're feeling right now. - We're both, we're both, like he said, if there was not video evidence and you told me that Sergio went and entered someone's house and then left, I would be shocked as well, right? But obviously, you saw the videos and we have, we have a job that we have to do based on the videos, right? So I understand it's shocking, but we have things that we have to do because of the laws and because of obviously of the unescalation, right? We continue, this is the second night in a row that he's gone to this residence and entered the residence. So it's concerning. - Do you even know who we're talking about when we say? - I know Mary. - Okay, okay. - But I don't know that she was living there, we're not in contact for a year. - She said that the last time this happened, not yesterday, but the some odd years ago when this occurred, she said that she didn't tell him where she lived and that also concerned her, that she had moved and she hadn't really told anybody and it happened then. And so some years ago and she said, this is just a surprising to her because she wasn't expecting it either because it's been so long since they've had a contact. - All right, so do you like this? This I'm your under arrest, okay? Remember how I called you earlier? It's the difference between saying and being arrested at that, we're gonna go down to the jail, I can't complain on that while we're in the car, okay? You're gonna go into the back of my patrol car. - All right, watch your head sitting down, sir. - Oh, I know, it's not comfortable. - I'm slide forward still, we're in a more high, perfect. Let me buckle you in and then we'll get you going. There should be like grooves in that back to kind of put your arms in and make it as comfortable as possible if you can try and get your arms in 'em. - I don't know, I don't know. - Yeah, they're double locked here, spin a little bit. Try and get your elbows where this hand is, try and get your elbow in there. - All right, well, just hang tight for a minute, it won't take long to get you anyway. - Ah, I'm good, go. - Ooh, it's specifically asked that he's not, obviously allowed anywhere near that residence and to have no contact with her of any sort. - You will do a council, everything. - You say what? - You will be a great council, there too. - Thank you, I appreciate that. - Really? - Yeah, well, I wear many hats in this job. Councilor is one of them, but, - Well, knows, maybe a career change one day. - Rechapling. - Rechapling, maybe. Who knows? - What's your idea? - Officer McLeod. - McLeod. - Thank you. - Yeah? - We're everything. - Of course. - All right, so I told you about the next piece of papers that she's gonna give me is that emergency predictor order. But that's gonna say if she grants it, which I think she will. It's gonna say you can have no contact. That means you can't. - I don't wanna be contacted. - Yeah, you can't have any contact. You can't go near, you can't go to her house. You can't go talk to her mom so that she can go talk to her. No contact of any kind. You can't write a letter and send it to her. Nothing. If you do, you'll be re-arrested for violating protected order. So, and I'll explain. You'll get a copy of that as well. I'm not explaining it to you. Mind by mind. - I haven't had any contact with her lately. - She told me that you hadn't had any contact. For a long long time. Thank you back. For that, the breaking and entering part of alcohol on to that as a end of purview. And it's here by order that the request has been granted and the order that the respondent files that serve the following conditions. You shall not commit any acts of violence, force, or threat, or criminal offense, resulting in injury, to curse or unprofitive. You understand that you are in order to protect the safety of the alleged victim and their family or household members. You shall have no contact of any kind. No contact means no contact, no direct, no indirect, no Snapchat, the Facebook, no Instagram, the snail mail, no leading notes, no director, indirect eye contact with her, no following her, no smoke signals, nothing. No contact means no contact. In addition to that, there's no exceptions. Any kind of contact, you cannot have third party contact. You cannot leave messages for or through other people, message other people on the behalf or for the purpose of contacting her. You cannot mention or follow the petitioner on any social media and you cannot physically follow the petitioner either. I understand your bar from the physical presence of the alleged victim, physical presence is 100 feet from the person in place, where they glist and their employment. So if she works at Walmart, you can let go to Walmart, if she is at home or not at home, you cannot return to the property ever on, understand that it's correct or order that you shall not access any information, referencing the petitioner's residence or place of employment and your trust has one of property. Understanding if you go back to that property, not only looking at a violation of the protective order, I am formally trust passing you from a property. This is your notice. You're not to go back to, oh, and that property that she owns, so I'll make myself clear. After they searched the house, this investigator called me again and let me know that Sergio was not in my home and they secured the home. I said, I don't even want to go in my house. If they didn't find him, where is he? The investigator calls me back 30 minutes to an hour after our initial conversation on speaker phone with his partner with him and they have more questions for me. They asked me again, why do I think he would be in my house? I told them like, I don't know. And they were like, how did he know where you live? And I'm like, I have no idea. I'm talking to them and I'm actually processing out loud because then I'm remembering things, putting things together. So that's when I told them there was one time where maybe just months after moving in, he was just driving by. I would say maybe an hour after that, the investigator calls me again and lets me know that they arrested Sergio. The investigator, he was like, it's been a long night. But actually, it had only been two hours since my 911 call. To me, I'm like, that was fast. I think the investigator said, there's a lot that's happened since we last talked. The investigator explained that they went to his house. They confronted him. Sergio denied it. Then they showed the video. And when he was shown the video of him in my house, he stopped denying it, but then he stopped talking. And so then he was arrested. The investigator gave me the most basic information, which is very professional. I completely understand. And then when I watched the body camp footage, my jaw dropped. The investigator had told me the night of his arrest that he went ahead and got me an emergency protective order. So when I had come back home from out of state, the very next day, which was my birthday, I went to the police station, picked up the protective order, then went to the court and requested to have it extended and then had to wait a couple hours to be presented before the judge and had to explain to the judge why I wanted the protective order. So that was my birthday. My daughter, as soon as we got back after this, it all happened. She immediately went straight to the basement where her bedroom was and started bringing everything up from the basement. We had an extra bedroom upstairs, so she moved into that. And it really impacted her a lot. [MUSIC] The next day, I saw my neighbor across the street outside in her yard. And anytime we're outside in the yard, we say hi to each other. Sometimes I walk over there and we start talking. She called me over to her yard and I came over. And she told me that she saw all the police at my house. So I let her know what had happened. And she said that she saw that a car had parked. She explained she was up with her husband watching TV. And where the TV is, there's a window right by it facing my property. She said a man just started walking up the driveway. It was 11.30 at my on a Friday night. And he just seemed out of place. She noticed where he parked his car, which was right at an intersection, right by stop sign. She knew that the house directly next to me had been sold, but the family that purchased it hadn't moved in yet, no one had been living there. And watches as Sergio walks up the sidewalk, goes to the house next to mine through the driveway into the backyard. And then she said she called non-emergency police, because she just felt that that was suspicious. She told me that he wasn't there very long. Then she saw him coming from my backyard to my driveway and walking down my driveway. He then walks down the sidewalk, but in opposite direction of his vehicle. Once he gets one house down, he turns around and starts walking the other direction toward his vehicle. And she said he was walking as slow as he can walk with no cure in the world. And she also noted that he was dressed nice. She noted how white his sneakers were. She's watching from inside of her house. And because it was so suspicious, she decided to get a flashlight go outside and she started shining it in his direction, basically to communicate to him like somebody sees you. She said he looks over at her, sees her, and just keeps walking very slowly to his car. It was so interesting, because the night before, I told my other neighbor, what had happened, and asked for her ringkimmer footage if she had any of him. She sent it to me and I watched her ringkimmer footage of him going down my driveway. Then down the sidewalk, he was definitely not in any rush to get away. And I thought that was weird. It was almost like this is just normal. I assume that the bond hearing was pretty quickly afterwards. Yes, it was just a couple days after. I was contacted by the victim's advocate through the Commonwealth Attorney's Office. This victim's advocate told me that the pastor would have a bond hearing. It was going to be, I think on Wednesday. So he was arrested on Saturday. She said that he would most likely be approved for bond because he didn't have any prior convictions. That's typically what happens if there's no prior legal problems. I was not aware that I could attend the bond hearing. I had no idea that I could give any input in the bond hearing. I just wasn't told. Those days he was in jail, I was able to sleep. He stayed in jail and then that Wednesday, he was given $5,000 bond. He would be released. I was notified the day after the bond hearing that he was released. I just didn't feel safe at all. For the protective order, I had to stand up before the judge to extend it. After that, they made another appointment at the court to extend it again. So it was only extended for two weeks and then I had to show up to the court. Again, that kind of surprises me, honestly. I had to go to the court where Sergio would be there. It really doesn't make sense to me, but I was granted the protective order. I think it was for two years at the time. When did you first hear about the break in? I heard from Marie pretty soon after it happens. Here's Marie's brother, Brendan. Once it became a crime, that's when she contacted the police. I hadn't heard until it happened. She had told my parents and they told me or even Gary or brother may have told me while she and her had sort of embedded themselves in to the end. Spanish Ministry at Thomas Road. I wasn't familiar with any of the pastors or the leadership, and I had only attended the actual Spanish-speaking service while visiting her and may have been then, but yeah, only once or twice maybe that I actually had gone to a service. I didn't know who he was, honestly, at all. What was her mental state when you had that conversation, if you recall? She was obviously disturbed, distressed. I mean, you kind of wonder, not necessarily how that can happen, but what would be going through someone's mind to think that was okay? And they had been friendly before, and that was deteriorating because he wouldn't stop harassing her. But that, at that time, was not known to me, so it was a little more surprising. Her first concern was for her children, and obviously for herself as well, because he's stalking her, and with stalking, it doesn't go away. Stalkers only escalate, so with that in mind, it was a little concerning, because he was not going to let up, which obviously is the case, because he did not. I think the hardest part is just having the sense that you're not safe, that your family's not safe, that someone could just come in and do whatever they want to them at any time, especially when they had already installed security cameras, which thankfully was how they discovered it. That fear that there might be something you're not able to stop that can happen to you just because this guy can just get into your house whenever he wants, concern for her family, herself, what would happen to her kids if something happened to her, or God forbid they also got hurt. Was it surprising for you to find out that your sister's stalker was a pastor or affiliated with the church? I'm not sure if surprise has the word disappointment initially, but also in a sense, I was not surprised. The culture surrounding a mega church like Thomas Road is the church sort of, it has a lot of influence and a lot of sway, so it was very disappointing for the leadership to respond in the way that they did, but I was also not surprised because as it was proven afterward, they're not really going to suffer consequences for it. In December 2023, somebody texted me and told me that the executive pastor, Matt Wilmington, wanted to talk to me to help me and my kids, so I called him and then he called me back an hour later. I answered and he said, "Hi, this is Matt Wilmington." I said, "Okay, hi." And then he didn't say anything else. And I was like, so I was calling because you wanted me to call you and he said, "Uh-huh." It was so awkward, I told him, "With the police had told me, after I was finished explaining that weekend, there was awkward silence again." And then I just felt a need to talk more and I just told him all the problems I had with Sergio. Years prior, I finished telling him all of those details. He asked, "Did you tell police everything that you told me?" He was actually pretty repetitive with the things he would say, with the statements he would make. Sergio is a dear, dear friend of his and that he was so sad, this was another repeated statement. And he said that phrase that Sergio has said so many times, "We're all capable of evil, even you are capable of evil." I started taking notes when I was on the phone call because it was just so disturbing to me. When I shared my concern that there could be other victims, he told me there are no other victims. And then he told me that he went to the Spanish congregation and let them know that Sergio had to resign. I told Matt Romington, "Well, I'm happy to hear that he was fired." And he immediately corrected me, really wanted me to know that Sergio did the right thing and he resigned. Even if he steps down, he's going to the church every Sunday, he's still seen as a person with authority. He asked me if I've ever gotten counseling or if I go to counseling. I said, "No, I need to go to counseling for my past." And then he asked me, "What church I attend?" I told him I wasn't going to church. Then he told me that I needed to go to a church. Matt Romington let me know that Sergio would continue to attend the church because the church is for the broken. He said that he would be doing accountability with Sergio weekly, not sure what their definition of accountability is. We ended the conversation, it was like an hour phone call. Looking back at the conversation, it felt like he was taking the attention and placing it back on him when I'm actually the victim of these crimes. He was reframing the narrative. When I got off that phone call, I just felt so unheard. I was very angry, even more scared. And I said, "What the actual hell is going on in that church?" The day after I talked to the executive pastor, Matt Romington on the phone, WSET reported that a pastor had been arrested for stalking and breaking and entering. They shared his name. I contacted WSET and let them know that I was the victim and I'd like to share more because I was so deeply disturbed by the conversation that I had with the executive pastor. And then they asked if I would do an interview and they said, "Yes." In the Lynchburg woman who claims a local pastor broke into her home and stalked her, is sharing her story tonight. Sergio Guardia is charged with breaking and entering and stalking. Guardia was her pastor at TRBC in Espanol Church. And she says this pattern of stalking has been going on for around six years. When he broke in on Friday, he could claim that he didn't know that that door was my daughter's bedroom, but he can't claim that the second night. ABC 13 trying to talk to Guardia. We called and went to his home, but he had no trespassing signs on his property. He is scheduled to be in court in February. Right after the interview with WSET, a couple people reached out to me. One was a woman that said that she had seen the news. I didn't know her. She found me on Facebook. She had been through the same thing where a pastor had abused her. I trusted her and I was like, "Good, I don't have to go through this alone." And then another woman on Facebook that I am friends with but have never interacted with messaged me and told me about an advocate. Lindsay had helped her through her divorce. I was happy to have someone that seemed like a professional advocate. When I looked at her page, I could see that she had an advocacy website. She did coaching and seemed to have a lot of experience and had gone through her own experiences, which led her to advocacy. And so I had contacted her and she seemed very supportive. She scheduled a phone call with me. Lindsay told me on that first phone call that her grandfather had been a pastor. The church she grew up in was a cult. This was something that made me trust her because it made me believe that she can relate. Most of the conversation was just me sharing everything that had happened. And right at an hour, she said she had to go and then she asked me, "If I'd be available in two weeks, she gave me a date and time." And I was surprised because why do we need to talk again? I went ahead and scheduled with her. I was just thinking, this is her passion. So, okay, she emailed. She asked me if I would like for her to get a support group for me. And I said, of course, she offered to make a Facebook messenger group with all these people. After that, she had consistent contact with me. Every few months, she would always contact me in schedule a phone call, maybe like three weeks, four weeks before any hearing. Our phone calls were limited to exactly one hour. And in the Facebook messenger group, that's a whole nother story. She started that group. I could tell that Lindsay was in charge. She seemed to influence everything. The opinions, conversation, and then when I brought concerns to the group about my safety, no one responded. It's like what my concerns were, didn't matter. But then anything that Lindsay had focused on was like what they focused on. I could look back and see that her advocacy was performative that she had control over the narrative, not only publicly with my story, but also trying to control the narrative that I believed about my situation and what I was going through. She said that there's an organization in Lynchburg that she had recommended and she could link me to this organization that could help. And I said, yes. So she sent an email and included me in the email to an organization. And when she sent the email, she sent it to a few people. She included the link to my interview with WSU. CT to highlight the story, and only I think one person responded, and I was never contacted. Then I said, "Well, maybe what happened to me in this situation isn't a big deal." And that thought crossed my head so suddenly, and then I said, "No, this is huge." The victim's advocate had told me she would contact me after the holidays and schedule a time to meet with the prosecutor so we can prepare for the preliminary hearing. The holidays come and go, and then January comes. It was the beginning of February that the preliminary hearing was scheduled for. During this time, even before the preliminary hearing, they told me that Sergio asked for a plea deal. The prosecutor said that the plea deal that they were asking for is that it be reduced to stalking and take away the felonies. And he explained to me that having even one felony on someone's record, they can't get jobs, and how felonies impact his life. My response was, "He's just now thinking about that." He's had time to think about what the legal consequences could be. There were plenty of times that I threatened to call the police. He's had so much time to think about how this could impact him and his income and his family, and that's not something I'm responsible for. The prosecutor also explained that it works out for the victim of the crime because then they don't have to go through the trial, and I just didn't want the plea deal. I was willing to go through all the work of the trial. I think it was around two weeks before the preliminary hearing. I finally contacted the victim's advocate and was like, "Can I meet with the prosecutors so that I can be prepared?" We scheduled a meeting and it was at that meeting prosecutor and the victim's advocate told me that Jonathan Falwell was at the bond hearing and that the executive pastor of Thomas Roy Baptist Church, Matt Wilmington, was also there, which really surprised me. I asked the prosecutor why was Jonathan Falwell at the bond hearing? His response was something like, "Oh, just to show his presence, I was told that Sergio's wife was also a witness of character at that bond hearing. She was explaining him as a husband and as a father how this would negatively impact her if he remained in jail." On top of that, the police officers were there and testified to everything that I had reported to them that night. When the prosecutor told me that the police officers were witnesses, "I remember thinking then why could I be it when I'm the one that reported it?" When I met with the prosecutor, another thing that frustrated me was he told me that I'd be surprised how common this is and how often this happens. I said how often men break into women's houses and he said, "Yeah." I said, "How common it is for pastors to do this?" He said, "Yeah." Even the victim's advocate had made a statement like that to me before. The statement just gave me this feeling like this wasn't a big deal and this is just normal. I'm thinking logically if this is so common, it must be because they know they can get away with it. The only thing he said about the stalking and breaking and entering was he said it was creepy and that didn't sit well with me because it's creepy but it's actually criminal and it's dangerous. It felt very minimizing. That's kind of when I recognize that I would really need to make sure that I was diligent in the legal process. I decided I'm not just gonna sit back and depend on the prosecutor or the victim's advocate or the legal process. It was a lot of work. For me, it was researching more about the legal process, how it works specifically in a criminal court case, specifically in Virginia, and researching my rights as a victim. I really relied more on my preparation individually than the preparation with the prosecutor. The day of the preliminary hearing, the public is there and they just call case by case up. The prosecutor let me know that they were able to make Sergio's case the last one on the docket that day. There were several people there in support of Sergio, his wife, his mom that lives in Bolivia so she must have traveled just for this hearing, his dad, and then I want to say five or six pastors from Thomas Road that I recognized two of them. I knew very well. I knew they weren't there to support me. They all sat in the very front row. Not a single one of their wives came, that was weird to me, but also very telling. I trusted these men and that's when I realized maybe I should have never trusted them. I was already feeling unsafe because of Sergio and I never believed that he would actually stop. Then he's getting help and encouragement and people showing up for him, especially from men in these positions of authority. I, to stand in front of them, face the judge and answer questions from both Sergio's lawyer and the prosecutor, even though all of those pastors were there, I had no problem testifying and telling the judge everything that I experienced. The defense lawyer would ask me questions and then the prosecutor asked me questions. The prosecutor showed the video of Sergio inside of my house. There's really no denying the video footage. It's damning. The judge decided that it would go to trial. Then she asked me, "Why do you need a protective order? Is my life in danger?" I was surprised that I was the one that had to answer that. I was also surprised that it's even a question when you have the video evidence and you've confirmed that this needs to go to trial. I told her, "Yeah, I absolutely need a protective order. I've already testified everything that he's done in the past, and then he broke into my house." I said, "This is over an extended period of time, and this is a pattern of behavior." She went ahead and extended the protective order, put my kids on it. When I met with the prosecutor, he explained that Sergio might not be convicted or probably wouldn't. Whatever he said, I was so shocked and then he said, "With a conviction, we have to prove intent to harm," and he said, "that's hard to prove," and I was like, "Oh, but I can prove it." He was like, "Well, he didn't steal anything," and I said, "That I know of." Your sense of security is what he stole, absolutely. Any intention he has is absolutely not good. With all of the details, here's Marie's best friend Claire. You're supposed to be able to trust your pastors. She was afraid to go home. Her daughter was afraid to sleep in her own room to have that stripped away from you over somebody who is supposed to be like this supporting guiding leader in your life, to just have all of that sense of safety be stripped away from you. I don't want to say it's unforgivable because that's not a Christian thing for me to say, but it's despicable. She has been living in such a sense of survival mode, that it was, especially for the first couple months, really hard for her to function. It was hard for her to work. It was obviously hard for her to be at home. I personally don't even know how she'd be able to sleep at night because I don't think that I could. She's even still at a point where every single person that she meets, she has to second guess. She just sees through this lens of trauma basically that she's been through. It breaks my heart. It's made her world very small. I'm going to get emotional again. It's super sad because Marie is such a shining human that to have to keep such a small circle when she could bless so many people with just like who she is as a person, the few friends that she does have. I wish there was more that we could do for her, but she's doing incredible for all intents and purposes. Switching years to this alleged support group that sort of formed after Sergio's arrest, what if anything you recall Marie sharing with you about that situation? She told me about these people that were reaching out, some of them because they had been through something similar and some of them just because they wanted to come around her and support her initially, Marie was like, thank god I have somebody supporting me because everybody else was saying all of this trash stuff about her and I know that Marie's two best friends, myself and another person, don't even live in the same state as her. We have young kids, we can't really get away and support her the way that we really want to. She was super thankful to have this shelter of what she thought was safe people and then throughout the court cases. it came to light that they were not the support that she thought that they were. - What do you think was the hardest part for you watching someone that you love go through something like this? - It's definitely that I don't know how to help. It's also that we are a few states away from each other. So like not being able to be like, "Hey, come over for a cup of coffee. "We can talk about it. "We do talk very frequently, "but not being able to protect her. "I think it's something that's really hard for me "because my friends mean a lot to me. "Having walked through so much trauma with her, "first with her ex-husband, "and now with this Sergio thing. "I just want to like wrap her in a hug and never let her go. "I've been so tired of seeing people treat her "the way that they have treated her." - She's lucky to have you. You're lucky to have each other. How did people in the community respond if at all from your perspective? - There were like two really loud responses, and it was either doing whatever they could to come alongside her and they couldn't believe that this happened, and then also the people who were immediately blaming her, calling her a liar, saying that they were having an affair, which absolutely could not be further from the truth. - Next time on something was wrong, Sergio was able to choose whether he wanted a jury trial or bench trial, so either a jury or judge. He chose a judge, which I thought was weird. I had a feeling that it was gonna change and then sure enough, the day of the trial, the victim's advocate told me that it was continued to march 2025. - You know, November of 2023, one of our staff members who served in our Spanish Ministry was arrested. Now, in the last year, in what, five months or so, I'm not spoken about this issue in this room or anywhere, there's a reason for that. I'm not spoken about it, and no one on our team is spoken about it because it was an ongoing legal case. - Let me say a couple of things. Mr. Warty, please stand, sir. This was not a one-time exercise and a judgment. This was conductive, we've repeated. And it wasn't random. (soft music) - Thank you endlessly to every survivor, guest, and expert who has contributed to our community. We are eternally grateful for your bravery, energy, and time. Something was wrong is a broken cycle media production created and produced by Tiffany Rees. Thank you to our incredible team, Associate Producer Amy B. Chessler, Audio Engineer Becca High, and social media marketing manager Lauren Barkman. Special thanks to Sarah Stewart for our amazing season 26 artwork, Steven Wack for Add Audio Editing, and our partners at Audio Boom. 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If you know, you know. Thank you so much for listening. Until next time, stay safe friends. Hi friends, this is Amy B. Chessler. And if you've been loving listening to something was wrong, you'll definitely want to check out Broken Cycle Media's sister podcast, What Came Next. With more than 170 episodes available, the series explores what happens after survivors share their stories publicly, diving into healing, justice, advocacy, and the lasting impact of trauma and media exposure. Co-created and co-produced by Tiffany Reese, the show gives survivors a platform to discuss not just what happened, but where life led them next. Follow and listen to What Came Next, wherever you get your podcasts.