'He Played With People’s Minds': Fresno Priest Left a Trail of Sexual Abuse Allegations

The California Report Magazine

KQED’s Alex Hall has spent years reporting on the criminal case of Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna, formerly known as Father Antonio to his Central Valley parish. For a decade, Castañeda drew in hundreds of followers from Fresno’s Latino Community to his Spanish-language congregation, earning him the nickname, “el padrecito que hace milagros (the priest who performs miracles). But parishioners started coming forward, mostly adult men, accusing the priest of sexually assaulting them during healing rituals. When he was arrested in 2019, Castañeda was looking at the possibility of serving 23 1/2 years in prison. Since this story first aired in 2020, Castañeda pleaded no contest to nine counts of sexual battery and one count of attempt to dissuade a witness. The rest of the charges were dropped. In June, he was sentenced to 365 days in the Fresno County Jail and five years of probation. With credit for time served, he is expected to be released in late December after serving a total of six months. We’ll hear Hall’s audio documentary that first aired in 2020, an update on Castañeda’s case and how the survivors feel about his recent sentencing.

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