Rafael Arteaga, an associate pastor charged with forcible sodomy of a 4-year-old girl, will be evaluated to determine his competency to stand trial.
"They are killing me with poison. I'll be dead when I come back," Arteaga said in English, as he was led, handcuffed, out of Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court on Friday, July 1.
"I didn't know the food was that bad," said a sheriff's deputy, after Arteaga was out of the courtroom.
But Arteaga did not appear to be joking, and his defense attorneys, Karin Kissiah and Jeff Overand, requested that their 58-year-old client have a psychological evaluation. Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Michael Ben'Ary had no objection.
"We have to get this resolved before we go forward," Ben'Ary said, during the hearing before Judge Teena D. Grodner which lasted less than 10 minutes.
Fairfax County Police arrested Arteaga, an associate pastor at St. Mark's Lutheran Church, in Springfield, on Monday, June 13.
A 4-year-old girl and her mother were at a playground across the street from Lynbrook Elementary School near the church, which is located at 5800 Backlick Road in Springfield, according to police reports. Arteaga and the mother were talking when her daughter asked her mother for water. Arteaga offered to take the 4-year-old into the church for water.
"The daughter later told her mother that while she was in the church, the pastor had inappropriate contact with her," according to a press release from the Fairfax County Police Department.
<b>AFTER AN INVESTIGATION, </b>police arrested Arteaga on Monday, June 13, at his home, on the 5800 block of Craig Street in Springfield.
Before his arrest, Arteaga had been employed by the church since September 2001, according to Michael Taylor, St. Mark's senior pastor, in a statement issued the day after Arteaga's arrest.
"We are deeply saddened to hear of the arrest of Pastor Arteaga and of the incident of which he is accused. Sexual molestation of children is a crime and we have no tolerance for sexual abuse or misconduct of any kind," Taylor said.
Arteaga appeared disheveled when he entered the courtroom Friday. "They cannot do anything to me," Arteaga said through a translator, as he entered what was scheduled to be his preliminary hearing
<1b>— Glenn McCarty contributed to this story.