Roman Catholic Priest wanted in Calif. nabbed in Mexico - molested little girls

[Whitebear]

Roman Catholic Priest wanted in Calif. nabbed in Mexico - faces four counts child molestation involving two girls

Gerardo Beltran

A fugitive Sacramento priest, who fled the country 17 years ago after allegations he sexually abused two young girls, has been arrested in Mexico and may soon be extradited to the United States.

Gerardo Beltran, 50, is charged with four counts of child molestation occurring between 1989 and 1991 and involving two victims, according to a press release issued by the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office late Friday.

Beltran, who started serving in the diocese in 1982, disappeared in 1991 after Sacramento police began investigating allegations that he abused two former child parishioners.

Sacramento church officials suspended Beltran's faculties, a process that would supposedly stop him from working in the clergy. However, as The Bee has reported since 2005, he is believed to have been serving openly as a priest in a remote village in his native Mexico.

Sacramento church officials said they were relieved to learn of the arrest.

"This is welcome news. Beltran's victims will finally have their day in court and finally have the chance to see justice done," Bishop William K. Weigand, leader of the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, said in a statement Friday night.

"On numerous occasions the diocese has alerted church officials in Mexico that Father Beltran was a wanted fugitive in California and that his faculties to say Mass have been revoked," Weigand said.