C.J. Gish
Three people who were sexually abused as teens by a church employee have filed lawsuits against Ignite Life Center in Gainesville and the Orlando-based Florida Multicultural District Council of the Assemblies of God.
The suits come days after Gabriel Hemenez reached a plea deal and accepted a five-year prison sentence for abusing two of the boys.
Horowitz Law attorneys Adam Horowitz and Jessica Arbour filed the suits Tuesday alleging the church and district covered up the abuse.
Gainesville Police Department (GPD) detectives arrested Hemenez last July in Lakeland and charged him with sexually abusing multiple minors. A GPD investigation revealed that he had abused three teenage boys during the Ignite Life Center’s Youth Internship, a month-long overnight camp, in July 2021.
Adults from Ignite Life Center and employees of the district were on site to manage operations when the abuse occurred, the suits said. They also said that in 2019 Hemenez had admitted to Ignite Life Center leadership—including Head Pastor Mark Vegan, Pastor Esther Omeben and Pastor Nicholas Bruce—that he sexually abused another church member.
“[Defendents], by and through their respective agents, managers, employees, and directors, knew, or through the act of reasonable care should have known that [Hemenez] had a propensity to sexually abuse church members prior to 2021, yet it took no action to protect Plaintiff and other children from him,” one of the lawsuits said.
The suits go on to say that when a victim alerted Vega and Bruce of the abuse, they assured him that they had informed GPD, which was investigating.
“Plaintiff later learned that these representations were lies,” the suits say, “Gainesville Police had never been informed of his allegation.”
Ignite Life Center responded to the lawsuits in a quote to WCJB.
“The current allegations are under judicial review,” Bruce said. “We have full confidence with the legal process and we will cooperate fully with all legal inquiries.”
On March 6, the Florida State Attorney’s Office finalized a plea deal with Hemenez on two felony counts of molestation against a victim between the ages of 12 and 16, along with a misdemeanor count of battery, according to a Gainesville Public Information Services article. Following the five-year prison sentence, Hemenez will have eight years of supervised probation and will permanently be a registered sex offender.
Hemenez originally pleaded not guilty, but when faced with a potential 31 years in prison, he opted for a lesser sentence from the prosecution in exchange for pleading guilty.
According to Arbour, Monday’s lawsuits are not the end of litigation.
“These are the first of several lawsuits that Horowitz Law attorneys plan to file against Ignite Life Center and the Florida Multicultural District for the sexual abuse of children at the Gainesville church,” Arbour said in a statement.
In the press release, the mother of one of the plaintiffs said she is filing the lawsuit for her son because she wants the Ignite Life Center leaders who failed her son to be held accountable and to also protect kids everywhere in the future.
“As a mother and a believer in Christ, I am filing this lawsuit to expose a broken system and provoke change at Ignite Life Center,” she said. “I’ve experienced firsthand with this type of negligence does to a young life, to our household, and to the people closest to us. It has been devastating and the wounds it has caused cut very deep. It is my hope that this lawsuit holds Ignite Life Center and the Assemblies of God Church accountable for their poor decisions, bad behavior, and, most importantly, the lives they have damaged. Because of the carelessness of this leadership, some of these children may never recover, and some will never return to church again.”
Arbour, one of the attorneys at Horowitz Law representing the three plaintiffs, said children’s safety needs to be addressed.
“The abuse of children within a close-knit church community is devastating to those children, their families, and to an entire community faced with the idea that their church leaders have not always lived up to their word that children are safe and protected,” she said. “I applaud these brave young men for coming forward to break the silence on their experience, and for living their biblical teachings: what is done in the dark will always come to light.”
GPD officers also arrested two other people from Ignite Life Center on sexual battery charges, according to articles posted by Horowitz Law.
Ignite Life Center senior pastor Mark Vega’s son, 20-year-old Christian Vargas, was arrested on July 18, 2023, and charged with lewd or lascivious battery on a victim under 16 and lewd or lascivious conduct by an adult in two separate cases.
On Feb. 19, 22-year-old Noel Cruz, a church leader and son of Ignite Life Center assistant pastor Joey Cruz, was arrested and charged with lewd and lascivious battery on a victim under the age of 16.
Editor’s note: The lawsuit misspelled the name of Ignite Life Center’s Esther Omeben’s name and had it as Omeeven. The correction has been made.