This is part eighteen in a series of articles. You may want to first read this one as it covers the very basics of this case as well as part two as it looks at the church guidelines regarding children, as well as questions about them, and includes two court documents. This pertains to the recent sentencing of pedophile Jason Charles Hubacek of Beaumont Texas, who had been a member of at least two affiliated United Pentecostal Churches: Abundant Life Sanctuary in Groves, Texas and The Anchor of Beaumont in Beaumont, previously known as the First United Pentecostal Church of Beaumont and New Life Tabernacle. Some background on the latter may be found in the first article. He was at the Anchor for a short period and taught Sunday School there. (Some statements in this article are what have been alleged by people with whom I have been in contact, who are well acquainted with this situation.)
We may never know how many victims there are as it’s clear Hubacek didn’t care if a child was an infant yet in diapers, someone who would be incapable of comprehending or articulating what was done to them by a pedophile. A most frightening aspect is that for around ten years Jason C. Hubacek was permitted to work with children at these two churches, allowing him to come in contact with an untold number of children. (As mentioned in the first article, he also was involved in events at other churches.) It is my opinion that part of that fault lies with the first judge that handled the case years ago when Jason was first publicly accused of molesting children and the other part lies with Abundant Life Sanctuary for only going by a judge in a divorce case proceeding and dismissing these accusations when allowing him to work with children in various capacities, even after several people allegedly approached them through the years with serious concerns. His activity in the church should have been strictly limited to adults, erring on the side of caution, considering the severity of the sexual abuse accusations.
This article has minimal commentary and will mainly focus on two letters from a former member of Abundant Life Sanctuary who dated Hubacek in between his two marriages. She alleges that herself, a sister and her husband, as well as others, did bring their concerns about Jason Hubacek to the attention of David and/or Sandra Myer after the original divorce court case. At least one of those happened in early 2012 and two others in 2015. The church, in its September 19, 2018 letter to members, denied any such thing saying, “We never once received an accusation of sexual misconduct against Jason from anyone in the church or anyone whose child attended our church.” Image link for page 1, page 2 of the letter.
Between the asterisks is a certified letter sent to Kevin L. Prince, the current Texas District Superintendent. It was received and signed for on October 9, 2018 [proof of receipt from the USPS] and the sender has never heard anything back from him as of the writing of this article. [Note: At the time, she was unaware of the requirements needed in order to file an official complaint with the UPCI, such as the need for at least two signatures of witnesses.] According to Article V, Section 2 of the judicial procedure of the United Pentecostal Church, Kevin Prince should have sent a response immediately requesting additional information from the sender. “Upon the receipt of a complaint that does not have the required information (see Article I, Section 2, Paragraph 2)[screen shot], the District Superintendent shall inform the signatories of the need of further appropriate information to meet the requirements.” Once all required information is received, the Superintendent has thirty days to “appoint two (2) ordained ministers of the district to serve with him as the investigative committee.” Should a complaint be dismissed, they must “notify the accused minister and the persons who initiated the complaint.” Instead, all this woman has heard was silence from the Texas District of the UPCI. [screen shot of Article V from 2018 UPCI Manual: page one, page two]
The letter to Kevin Prince was later brought to the attention of David Bernard, General Superintendent of the United Pentecostal Church, in a recent exchange on his Facebook profile. This discussion is how I initially heard about the case. On the evening of November 11, 2018, Bernard responded to this woman, “I will find out what you are talking about, since the social media posts are so confusing. Again, I don’t do business over social media, for this very reason.” [screen shot of part of the discussion] To date she has not heard from Bernard. [Note added the afternoon of November 20 Very interesting development- since this article went live around 1am today, the quote in it that I shared from David Bernard has been removed from his profile. Also the woman who wrote the letter to the TX District Superintendent has been banned from Bernard’s profile. Additional conversations in the same discussion have also been removed, including ones about Bobby Hart still being licensed. (That is a totally different case.) Does this mean that Bernard will no longer be looking into the letter she sent? Why would you ban someone who is concerned about the welfare of children who have been around a pedophile?]
The personal information of the sender has been removed from the letter to Prince as has the last name of one individual mentioned. Below it you will find her letter to Judge Stevens that is referenced in the letter to Kevin Prince. It contains numerous thoughts regarding Hubacek as well as statements that concerns were reported to David and Sandra Myer. [May 29, 2024 Edit: David Myer passed away on September 10, 2020.]
More may be written about Jason Hubacek’s case in the future.
June 14, 2019 Note: On May 10, 2019, Kevin L. Prince stepped down as the District Superintendent. Jeffery P. “JP” Story, an ordained UPC minister, has taken his place. As of the date that Prince stepped down, he never responded to Carrie.
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October 3, 2018
Kevin Prince
Texas District Superintendent – UPCI
4109 S 1st St.
Lufkin, TX 75901
Dear Mr. Prince,
I am writing to you due to a grave concern I am trying to get someone to address.
I am a former member of Abundant Life Sanctuary in Groves, Tx pastored by David and Sandra Myer and Jason Myer.
On September 17, 2018 one of their Sunday School Teachers, Van driver and Usher, Jason Charles Hubacek, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for 3 counts of Aggravated Sexual Assault and 4 counts of indecency with a child. These children were his three daughters that he abused while a member of ALS.
I formerly dated Jason Hubacek for a brief period of 4 months and witnessed things that caused me concern. He had unrestricted and unsupervised access to children even after these pastors were told he was a pedophile by his ex-wife and members of her family. Jason’s ex-wife was the first person that tried to talk to them about what all he had done to their girls. She was a member of Abundant Life Sanctuary at that time. Another member of ALS, also the uncle of the children and David Myer’s close friend, Freddie [last name removed], spoke with David Myer concerning the allegations the children were making.
Please check on the children of this church. These pastors protected a pedophile for over ten years. He confessed to the Myers and they allegedly paid his bail even after they knew the details of his crimes and appeared with him in court when his own family would not. Amidst the backlash of their congregation finding out what this monster did to children they personally knew, his own children, the pastors recently gave a written statement (attached) which included that they were never told of any concerns of sexual misconduct regarding this member. I did come to them. My sister did come to them. My brother in law did come to them, all on separate occasions regarding different matters of sexual misconduct over a period of two years. There are also other outside believers who attend church elsewhere that came to them with concerns.
The statement that the Myers made had no reference to remorse, compassion or apologies to the victims and their family. It did not address the all too real fact that pedophiles abuse many children over a span of many years before being brought to justice. I understand they feel the strong need to protect themselves and my only intention is for someone to please check on the children that Jason Hubacek supervised and picked up on the bus Ministry, especially the ones he drove home in his personal truck with no other adults present. I personally witnessed him doing so.
I provided a similar statement to this one to the District Attorney who then presented it to Judge Stevens who determined Jason Hubacek’s sentence. The judge specifically stated that he had received statements from church people in defense of this pedophile and that he was not going to consider them for even a moment. I cannot shake the urgency that someone needs to check on all the children this man interacted with and very possibly groomed and/or harmed. Please do not ignore this crucial and devastating issue.
Sincerely,
Carrie Loftin Mena
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This is the letter sent to the district attorney that was to be forwarded to Judge Stevens prior to Hubacek being sentenced. It has been more heavily edited due to the personal information shared.
It is my concern and suspicion that more children have been affected by Jason Hubacek.
He had free unrestricted access to children for 10+ years at Abundant Life Sanctuary church in Groves, Tx. The pastors, David and Sandra Myer, attended court with him when he was initially accused of sexual abuse of his toddler daughters. After he was acquitted, they allowed him to serve in the capacities of sunday school teacher, church van driver and church usher. There were no cameras in the church so no way of monitoring any areas. The Sunday school classroom was also next to the kitchen which had a secluded pantry/closet in the back that the children could go in and get snacks, presenting many opportunities for him to be alone with a child if he chose. He was often taking kids home in his personal vehicle by himself with no other adult present. I personally witnessed these occasions. The church had a policy that if picking up/dropping off SS kids in the church van, there had to be two adults present. As an usher, he was instructed to follow children out if they left out of the auditorium alone, just to monitor and make sure they were not playing and ensure they returned to service promptly. This would have also given him many opportunities to be alone with children.
A friend of mine told me last week that when her son was baptized at church in 2016, Jason Hubacek is the one who was with him alone to supervise him changing into a baptismal robe. The boy was ten years old.
My connection and background:
I briefly dated Jason in 2010…met him July 4th, 2010 at the Abundant Life Sanctuary church in Groves, Tx at a 4th of July celebration.
I have a degree in Social Work, but am not a licensed social worker. I worked with Workforce Solutions in Port Arthur as a case manager with our Non-Custodial Parent jobs program, serving as a resource partner at Jefferson County Courthouse with the Child Support Office. I worked for 13 years in Social Services before becoming a stay home mom in 2014.
Shortly after I started dating Jason in 2010, my older sister had concerns about me getting him close to our 2 year old niece because of the prior allegations with his daughters….He and I were at my other sisters house and I sent out a picture of him laying on the loveseat with my niece on top of him…there was a bit of a family disagreement over this and so I told Jason all about it.
His demeanor immediately changed and he seemed desperate to convince me it was a lie….he also slowly started distancing himself from me and we were broke up by the beginning of December 2010, but he made sure to still be super nice to me as if to stay in my good graces.
My sister and her husband had known him since 2007 and did break off the relationship he had formed with them and my niece but Jason still pursued my niece….any time he was near her at church or in Sunday school he made a point of teasing her and making her laugh just to keep a steady contact and rapport with her. He would watch her from across the church building….and even though my brother in law would give him dirty looks, he would still try to talk to my niece. My family and I stopped going to Abundant Life Sanctuary for 3.5 years.
When my niece got older, my sister and her family returned to ALS and my niece understood to stay away from Jason and never be alone with him. Jason still tried to speak to her every chance he got so my sister and her husband went to Pastor Myer and asked that they tell Jason to leave her alone. One specific occasion occurred where Jason thought [name of niece removed] was alone in the hallway at church and he tried to walk with her and my brother in law appeared from behind, took Jason by surprise and stopped him and told him to his face to stay away from his daughter.
Jason once told me about a kid named [name of minor boy removed] from his Sunday school class. A boy about 9 years old who would come to church on the church van. [Name of minor boy removed] stopped coming to Sunday school for a whole year and they later found out it was because he had been sexually abused. When he finally was convinced to come back again on the church van he was still withdrawn at church. This would have been around years 2009-2010. [Note: It has since been confirmed that Hubacek was not the molester in this case.]
[Name of minor girl removed] is [name of minor boy removed]’s sister and she was very attached to Jason. Always hugging him, getting candy from his pockets, always around him. When she created a Facebook page and sent him a friend request he made sure to tell me she had sent him the friend request. She was probably about 11 years old then but her Facebook picture was a bit risqué.
There was a weird occurrence with a friend of his who was also a youth pastor at another church.
Jason and I saw his friend, [male name removed] and his family along with other church members on a Sunday night at Mazzio’s pizza place in Port Arthur, Tx. Jason spent the whole time playing with [male name removed]’s little girls (approx 4 and 5 yrs old). He later told me that after dropping me off, he stopped by [male name removed]’s house because the girls had wanted candy and he didn’t have any in his pockets but then he found some in his truck so he stopped by to give it to them even though it was past 10pm. [Male name removed] wouldn’t let him in the house….said the girls were already in bed. [Male name removed] was also his co-worker at Johnson Controls.
Another weird occurrence that I include because Jason has one sibling, [female name removed], who he is very close to. She and her husband and toddler twins lived in close proximity to Jason in Beaumont when he lived with his parents. They were always at one another’s homes, at least weekly, and the toddlers (a boy and a girl) were very close to Jason.
Jason’s niece- [name of minor girl removed]. Her parents are [female name removed] and [male name removed].
[Name of minor girl removed] was in daycare in 2011 and [female parent’s name removed] told me that the little girl had a favorite hooded jacket that she loved. It was summer time and the lil girl would insist on wearing it to school, refuse to take it off, wore it around the house, with it zipped up and the hood over her head and face and just play like that. If anyone tried to take it off she screamed and cried and fought them. [Name removed] would have to force it off her for bath time and the lil girl would be sweated down, hair wet from wearing it.
At present time, there is a story floating around that what actually precipitated Jason’s confession in 2017 is an incident happened at his then current church in Beaumont, the Anchor church. It involves an incriminating photo on his phone which his wife, [name removed], took to their pastor and that’s when Jason supposedly confessed. Jason was asked not to return back to the church and [name removed] divorced him. He went to his ex-wife [name removed] to also confess to her and he went to his former church, the above mentioned Abundant Life Sanctuary to also make some sort of confession to that pastor. Regarding what or who, I do not know. After that is when he confessed to Detective Hudson.
It is my hope that any and all such information will help to provide Judge Stevens with all the information he needs in order to render the maximum sentence for Jason Hubacek on September 10.
Thank you for your assistance and service to the community.
You will find a complete list of articles in this series by clicking here.
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