A Monterey diocesan priest, arrested last summer for alleged lewd conduct, has pleaded no contest to charges of having committed sex crimes.The Rev. Geronimo Enrique Cuevas, 52, will have to serve a three-year probation, pay a $750 fine, perform 40 hours of community service, and attend an AIDS education class.
Undercover deputies arrested Cuevas last July at Pirate’s Cove, south of San Luis Obispo. Cuevas allegedly grabbed the crotch area of a male undercover officer.
When arrested, Cuevas reportedly told deputies that he was from Las Vegas and unemployed.
Though he owns an apartment in Las Vegas, Cuevas was associate pastor at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Nipomo and previously was pastor of St. Mary of the Nativity Church in East Salinas.
Cuevas was arrested and booked on two misdemeanor charges: engaging in lewd conduct and soliciting a lewd act. In August, he pleaded not guilty to the charges. Cuevas new plea of no contest, made in San Luis Obispo Superior Court on Monday, results in conviction but does not include an admission of guilt.
Last July, after Cuevas’ arrest, the Diocese of Monterey issued a statement saying that Bishop Richard Garcia had placed Cuevas on administrative leave and had removed his faculties “pending outcome of the criminal investigation.”
A statement released by the diocese on Monday said Cuevas will remain on administrative leave until the diocese carries out its own investigation. “The Diocese of Monterey has faith in the justice system and in the decision reached as a result of the district attorney’s plea agreement,” said the statement.
News of Cuevas’ arrest last year surprised St. Joseph’s parishioners. Cuevas had the reputation of being a devout priest, generous to the needy, and with an interest in helping gang members.
He also had expressed devotion to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In 2001, when pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Salinas, he told the San Francisco Faith that he went to confession about once a month. “I talk every week about it from the pulpit.” he said, “and we have confessions every weekend from four to six, and sometimes we go until eight or eight thirty at night.”
Cuevas told the Faith, “not many people come to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, compared to the number of Catholics. I think people in the American society have washed away their feeling of sinfulness. That nothing is sinful now. People in this country tend to minimize their sense of sinfulness. Nothing is a sin.”
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