Category: Churches

This 41st installment in this series about sexual abuse in the United Pentecostal Church will be different from the others. This concerns a young man who was water baptized at one of their churches and was recently arrested on suspicion of multiple sexual charges against minors. I do not know the extent of his involvement at this Spanish church or if he was still attending when arrested. I wish to make clear that this article is not in any way attempting to accuse this church or pastor of any prior knowledge of his actions or any wrongdoing regarding this case. It is being posted as an alert to any parent who attends or attended there where this man may have come into contact with their child(ren).

The extent of Alejandro Negrete’s involvement at the Iglesia Del Dios Viviente, a United Pentecostal Church, pastor Joe Anthony Ramos, is uncertain. The church is located in Portland, Oregon. He was baptized there in 2018, apparently in late October. This is the link to the above screen shot from the church Facebook Page. If the recent charges against him are true, it is unknown when this started, so parents should be aware and should check to be sure that no harm, or attempted harm, came to their child(ren). Please contact the Sheriff’s office at 503-846-2700 if you suspect anything may have happened.

“I think this specific act is pretty brazen, doing this while you’re working, in a truck, in a FedEx uniform,” said Det. Mark Povolny with WCSO. “Unfortunately we’ve seen that people who want to take advantage of children will look for any opportunity to do that.” – Source

Alejandro Negrete, age 24, was working as a FedEx driver for over one year when he was arrested on July 16, 2021 for attempting to sexually assault a 9-year-old girl in Aloha, Oregon. He was on the job when this happened. The girl was playing outside her home in the 4000 block of Southwest 106th Avenue when Negrete attempted to lure her with candy and assault her. Thanks to the child, her mother and police, with the help of FedEx, he was quickly arrested. Upon his arrest and based on what Negrete shared with investigators, they suspected that he sexually assaulted at least one other person, though it did not appear it was related to his employment. He worked seven days a week and his routes with FedEx included southwest Portland, Beaverton, Aloha and Tigard.

Three days after his arrest, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office reported that they discovered at least four additional child victims, all in relation to his FedEx employment. At least one of these alleges Negrete exposed himself to an 8-year-old girl in Beaverton. His bail was originally set at $20,000, but was quickly increased to $250,000 on July 19 after the other cases were discovered. Last I saw he was still incarcerated.

2024 Update: On May 18, 2022, Alejandro Negrete pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual abuse, first-degree attempted sodomy, and two counts of public indecency. He was sentenced to 103 months in prison. He must also register as a sex offender and undergo post-prison supervision upon his release from prison. (Link to Washington County District Attorney release.)

He is currently incarcerated at ​the Snake River Correctional Institution, which is a multi-security facility. His earliest release date is August 29, 2029.

KATU news article re: his sentencing.
KPTV news article re: his sentencing.

You will find a complete list of articles in this series by clicking here.

********
Shop at our Amazon store! As an Amazon Influencer, this website earns from qualifying purchases.

It is not my intention in this article to go into details of the two United Pentecostal Church related sexual abuse cases that will be mentioned here. Those will hopefully be covered in future articles. What I wish to share are my thoughts on how Ronald Earl Bohde, one of their pastors, handled two separate sexual abuse cases, each at a different church. It is infuriating that a pastor can fail to report the sexual abuse of a minor to police and then years later, support a different youth leader who was found guilty of 19 counts of sexual abuse involving four minor girls. Why the UPCI continues to license men who mishandle sexual abuse cases is absolutely mind boggling. It seems they need to toss their 2019 position paper on sexual abuse as words without actions are meaningless. This is Part 40 of an ongoing series about sexual abuse in the United Pentecostal Church (see links at the end).

Ron Bohde was raised in the United Pentecostal Church as his father, Earl S. Bohde was a long-time UPCI minister, going back to the 1950s in Oklahoma and Arizona. Ron graduated from the Salinas High School in 1976 and was a graduate in 1980 of Christian Life College (then known as Western Apostolic Bible College) and has been preaching ever since. He claimed that when he was 24, he turned down an offer to pastor a church in Collinsville, Oklahoma, where he had preached a revival. He has been a pastor in Mississippi, Oregon, and then his present church in Dinuba, California, where he started in late March 2016. While in Mississippi, he also worked as an administrative assistant for the District. In 1999 he became the director of Home Missions of the Mississippi District, which it appears he held for a year.

In the late 1980s, Ron Bohde was pastor of the UPC of the Reservoir in Jackson, Mississippi for a brief time and for about three years in the late 80s to the very early 1990s he was pastor at the Pentecostal Lighthouse Church in Meadville, MS. He then pastored the New Chapel Pentecostal Church in Collins, MS where he remained until 2005. It appears that after this he took a break from pastoring while remaining in Mississippi. In 2008 he became the pastor at Bethel United Pentecostal Church in Hillsboro, Oregon. While in Oregon, he owned Bethel Wood Works, an pen and oil vessel business. During the latter part of Bohde’s time in Oregon, the church had a daughter work in Seaside, Bethel Apostolic, which later folded, followed by another using the same name in Forest Grove, which also closed. In March 2016, Ronald Bohde became the pastor of Calvary Apostolic Church in Dinuba, California, where he remains as of the writing of this article. He is 62 years old.

Why does this article point out the various places where Ron Bohde has been a pastor? It is because, in my opinion and that of others, in two of these churches (Bethel & Calvary Apostolic), there was a sexual abuse case involving a youth leader and each was not properly handled. One cannot help but wonder if similar might have occurred at any of these other churches, and/or if there may have been additional cases at Bethel and Calvary Apostolic, but they never hit the news nor were prosecuted. Let’s take a brief look at these sexual abuse cases where the youth leaders were prosecuted.

“This was a worst-case scenario when it comes to a church and a pastor not cooperating.” – Prosecutor Kevin Barton, regarding the Dylan Ritterman case in Hillsboro, Oregon, and referring to Ronald Bohde.

Pictured below: Convicted sex offender Dylan Ritterman, UPCI Pastor Ronald Bohde, convicted sex offender Victor Becerra.

“Just to mess with their minds- I’m just praying that they get rain, cold and soaked wet, and miserably enjoy their protest.” – UPCI Pastor Ron Bohde, speaking at a church service in 2020, to the applause and laughter of church members. He was referring to a group of protestors comprised of the victims’ family and friends.

The following in bold is what was reported in part by The Oregonian on May 21, 2015 regarding the case against Dylan Ritterman and Ron Bohde’s response and knowledge of one of the victims. Bohde did not report the abuse to police when he first learned of it and was not initially cooperative with police when they were investigating the charges.

“This was a worst-case scenario when it comes to a church and a pastor not cooperating,” Barton said.

Barton said the church’s head pastor first declined to speak with police without a briefing on their investigation, which officers would not provide, and then declined unless his insurance agent could be present.

Finally, the head pastor talked to police and revealed with a “heavy heart” that he had known about the abuse of one of the boys. The teen had told the pastor about the abuse, Barton said, and the pastor told him to document it in a letter. But the boy didn’t speak English well and was incapable of writing a letter in English.

In May 2015, Dylan John Ritterman pleaded guilty to two counts each of attempted first-degree sexual abuse and second-degree sexual abuse of two boys at Bethel United Pentecostal Church, where Ronald Bohde was pastor. Ritterman was a youth and worship leader, minister, he lead services, taught and was involved in the Spanish ministry. It happened when the boys were in their early teens and some of the abuse occurred on church property. There was a third case which was dropped as part of the plea bargain. Ritterman was sentenced to prison for six years and eight months. His earliest possible release date is December 27, 2021.

On May 22, 2015, SNAP issued a statement asking the Portland religious leaders to shun the church leaders and urged law enforcement to press charges against the leaders due to how they handled everything. It stated that the pastor should be harshly punished. Less than a year later, in late March 2016, Bohde left Oregon to pastor the Calvary Apostolic Church in Dinubi, California. One must wonder if this church was made aware of the Ritterman case prior to this.

Ministers should not idly sit back while their colleagues – in any denomination – endanger kids, conceal crimes, rebuff police, and behave in ways that bring shame on people of faith.

When ministers do nothing while other ministers endanger kids, all churches become less safe. – SNAP, May 22, 2015, referring to Ron Bohde and Bethel United Pentecostal Church

The following in bold is what was reported in part by The Mid Valley Times  on November 11, 2020 regarding the case against Victor Becerra and Ron Bohde’s response.

But the pastor also continued to deny the claims and further wished rain and discomfort on a group of protestors made up of the victims’ family and friends.

“I don’t believe that he did it,” said Bohde. “Just to mess with their minds — I’m just praying that they get rain, cold and soaked wet, and miserably enjoy their protest.”

The comments received laughter and applause from his congregation.

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 2021 he was sentenced to prison for 228 years to life. In an October 14, 2020 article from The Mid Valley Times, it was noted:

“We were finally able to sleep well,” said Veronica Reese, mother of two of the victims, after Becerra was convicted. “It’s so amazing. They (her two daughters) were emotional and crying. But, we finally got justice.”

Reese stated that throughout the allegations, prosecution and trial, members from Calvary Apostolic Church continued to defend Becerra as they accused her and other victims of fabricating the abuse. It was also reported that the church bailed Becerra out of prison after his initial arrest. – October 14, 2020 The Mid Valley Times

After Becerra’s conviction, in an outdoor service, Bohde spoke about being treated wrong and that the protests on the church sidewalks were attempting to “disrupt and harass” them. He mentioned how enemies should be treated and loving those people. Yet it appears he forgot this just a short time later, when he wished ill on the protestors, as reported by The Mid Valley Times.

Survivors should not have to endure a pastor and church mishandling what happened as they have more than enough dealing with their sexual abuse. In my opinion, Ron Bohde is a perfect example of the need for the United Pentecostal Church’s position paper on sexual abuse. Will the UPC add actions to their words and intervene in cases like this? From what we have seen so far, their response has been mostly silence as Bohde continues to hold license with them and pastor one of their churches.

You will find a complete list of articles in this series by clicking here.

********
Shop at our Amazon store! As an Amazon Influencer, this website earns from qualifying purchases.