The 42nd installment in this series about sexual abuse in the United Pentecostal Church will be different from most of my entries, as at this time I wish to focus mainly on one aspect of the case. This concerns a lawsuit filed on December 3, 2020 by UPCI pastor Stephen Barker against Emily Calderon, a former church member, who has since sometime in 2020 been very outspoken about multiple cases of alleged sexual abuse involving Raul Rodriguez, a long-time member of Mount Zion Apostolic Church in Visalia (Goshen), California. Rodriguez married Kristen, the sister of Stephen Barker, in 2008.
The defamation lawsuit is also against twenty unnamed individuals and seeks payment of a half million dollars. The church is represented by attorney Mike Chappers and Calderon by attorney Lenden Franklin Webb. This is happening in the Western District of the United Pentecostal Church, which has had difficulties in recent years. District Superintendent Gaylen Cantrell is mentioned by the plaintiffs in the court documents. [It should be pointed out that Mount Zion Apostolic Church previously had as its pastor Harvey C. Cantrell, who is Gaylen’s father, and he is an Honorary Secretary of the Western District. Harvey Cantrell was the pastor 17 years ago when Meghan Estrada (now Robles), a preacher’s kid, was allegedly groomed and molested for over a year by Raul Rodriguez, starting when she was 13 years old and he was 23. Three years later when she was 16, Harvey Cantrell was made aware of what happened by Meghan’s father, but neither men reported it to police. At that time, Cantrell allegedly stated that Meghan had been wearing tight clothing and was promiscuous. Meghan’s case is especially complicated as Stephen Barker and Kristen Rodriguez are her cousins. According to a partial screen shot Emily Calderon posted in her TikTok account of a conversation between Kristen and Meghan in 2012, a few months before they were married, Cantrell told Raul to tell Kristen about the situation. Why Cantrell waited so long to advise this is problematic as Kristen has shared on her Facebook profile that they dated for seven years before marrying. What Raul allegedly did to Meghan would have happened during this time.]
This is case VCU285173. At present a settlement conference is scheduled for December 20, 2021, with a jury trial scheduled for January 31, 2022. Prior to this on November 17, 2020, Steven Calderon, Emily’s husband, filed for civil harassment restraining orders against Ron Barker, Stephen Barker’s father. This was case VCU285028. It was denied on December 7, 2020.
When someone sues for defamation, the burden of proof rests on the person(s) filing the lawsuit. My understanding of this is that they must prove the statements made against them are false and that the individual(s) knew the statements were untrue or made them maliciously, not caring about the veracity or lack thereof. They must prove the statements were made to a third party and that they incurred damages due to them. I would like to point out that this lawsuit is a public record, I believe the pastor would be considered a public figure, and as such people are free to discuss the case and the issues involved with it, sharing their thoughts and opinions. In addition, the issue of sexual abuse is unquestionably a very public issue. It should be clearly noted that while I understand that there is a police investigation, Raul Rodriguez has not been arrested or charged with any crimes. This is being posted to bring awareness to the situation and to show that Raul Rodriguez has been very involved at Mt. Zion Apostolic Church for many years.
Emily Calderon has made numerous TikTok videos about the situation, some of which have been removed due to them being reported. She has also publicly posted on her Facebook profile. Despite being sued by her former pastor, his father Ron Barker, and Mount Zion Apostolic Church, she has continued to speak out and filed a cross complaint against these parties on February 17, 2021. On May 27, the judge ruled against the church demurrer (basically a motion to dismiss) regarding Calderon’s cross complaint. At some point after the church lawsuit was filed, they removed the Facebook page for the church. They also removed the mention on the church website staff page of Raul Rodriguez and his wife being the music directors for the church. In this screen shot from Bing of their ministry staff page, it shows that Rodriguez was listed as the music director from as far back as at least October 28, 2020. (When clicking on ‘9 months ago’ on Bing, it gives the date as on or before October 28.)
I learned long ago that when reporting on cases such as this, that things tend to disappear from the internet. Because of this, when I initially started looking into this story several months ago, I collected a variety of screen shots including ones that showed Raul Rodriguez’s church involvement, which goes back many years. In one of the court documents, Calderon has shared an excerpt where Stephen Barker stated, “Raul is not a leader of the Church. Although Raul participates in Church music activities, Raul is not a leader, is not in a position of power, and does not have decision making authority.” Above I shared screen shots that show he was clearly the music director, which I believe most would consider to be a ‘position of power’ and that position would come with some ‘decision making authority.’ How could one be a music director and have neither of these? While Rodriguez is not a pastor at the church, from all I have seen, he has been in leadership positions and very heavily involved in the activities of Mount Zion Apostolic Church. Let’s look a little closer.
A clear example of Raul Rodriguez being proclaimed as a leader is found in an April 13, 2015 post on the now removed Facebook page for Mount Zion Apostolic Church. As you can see from the screen shot, he and his wife were proclaimed to be “hardworking youth leaders” and the church “couldn’t wait to see what the future holds for them and their ministry.” Due to him being a youth leader in his local church, he most likely then had the opportunity to be involved with the youth on a District level.
From April 2016 until April 2018 [screen shot], Rodriguez was the Section Three Youth Director for the Western District Youth Committee. Not only was he the Section Three Youth Director, but in 2018 he won an award as the Sectional Director of the year [screen shot]. Anyone being in this position gained additional opportunities to be around the youth of various churches. According to page 91 the 2017 UPCI Manual, two of the duties of a Sectional Youth Director are “to cooperate with the pastors in fostering youth work in the churches throughout the section” and “to be in charge of the rallies of his or her section.”
In 2017 he is seen at the UPCI church in Dinuba for a Section Three Youth Prayer event [screen shot]. If you have read my previous article, you may recall that on October 8, 2020, a jury found Victor Becerra, a former licensed United Pentecostal minister, guilty of 19 counts of child molestation of four minor girls at Calvary Apostolic Church in Dinuba, California where Ronald Bohde is the pastor and Becerra was a youth leader.
In May of 2019, Rodriguez received a Leadership Development Certificate, though I do not know the details on this. In this 2018 Facebook advertisement for a Back 2 School event at Revival Tabernacle, it shows that Rodriguez would be in charge of the music and lists him as Rev. Raul Rodriguez.
Raul has also been involved during Vacation Bible School at the church. The earliest evidence I discovered was from 2009 in this screen shot at the 30 second mark of a video that showed pictures from 2009 through 2019. He can also be seen at the 5:06 mark from 2017 and I believe at the 5:43 mark from 2018. In 2020 he was a guest for and the video producer of the Power Hour of the Sunday School ministry [screen shot] and helped with a number of these [additional screen shot].
In a 2017 video about the music ministry of the church, Rodriguez can be seen singing with others on the platform [screen shot]. If you skim through some of the church YouTube videos of services, you can see him on the platform playing and singing, such as this screen shot from March 29, 2020, this screen shot from April 15, 2020 and this screen shot from December 17, 2020. This YouTube channel was started on March 19, 2020. There is an older YouTube channel from 2014 that only has five videos.
I believe the above examples show some of the extent of Raul Rodriguez’s involvement in the church, as well as the Youth Division of the Western District, that the involvement extends over many years, and that he has held leadership [the action of leading a group of people] roles.
According to Calderon, she has twice attempted to settle the lawsuit by asking that they drop it without prejudice and pay her attorney fees. They have declined. Though the circumstances are different, this lawsuit reminds me of the one brought against Julie Anne Smith (and others) by her former pastor and Beaverton Grace Bible Church. Her attorney filed an an anti-SLAPP motion, the court dismissed the plaintiff’s lawsuit and the pastor/church had to pay many thousands of dollars in her attorney fees.
I am also reminded of two United Pentecostal Church ministers in California, Arthur Hodges III and George Nobbs, who were arrested in 1988 for failing to report child sexual abuse that was committed by a fellow UPC minister, Lyn Meche. Hodges and Nobbs were convicted in 1991 and when they appealed their conviction, it was upheld in 1992. This case is mentioned on pages 130 and 131 in the book, The Clergy Sex Abuse Crisis and the Legal Responses. It is because of the actions of these two ministers that clergy were specifically added to the mandatory reporting law in California.
On August 27, 2021, Meghan (Estrada) Robles gave her deposition for this lawsuit. Below is a video she previously released, where she speaks about the matter and why she is coming forward now.
SEPTEMBER 14, 2021 NOTE: After this article was posted Raul Rodriguez passed away on September 5, 2021, after a battle with COVID. He was just shy of turning 40. The lawsuit is ongoing.
NOVEMBER 6, 2021 NOTE: On November 1, Ron Barker, the father of Stephen Barker and Kristen Rodriguez, passed away.
Added November 14: Sign Emily’s petition here.
You will find a complete list of articles in this series by clicking here.
