Former Gainesville Mayor Lauren Poe Declines Interview on Ignite Life Center
Editor’s Note | The following was originally reported in Wednesday’s article about the Building Belonging event
On September 22, at the immigrant inclusion Building Belonging event, executive director of the Greater Gainesville International Chamber (GGIC) former Gainesville Mayor Lauren Poe was tabling for his organization.
On June 23, the lead pastor of Ignite Life Center (ILC), Mark Vega, talked about an email he received from a former Gainesville mayor.
Vega said, “I worked closely with him in Gainesville, and he stated, ‘Listen, you guys have championed advocacy from the immigrants [and] unaccompanied minors. I am involved in a program called…’ I don’t know the exact name, but it's ‘greater Gainesville’ [the former Gainesville mayor said] ‘We do the same kind of work, but we do it with families, like families of ten, families from Afghanistan, families from Europe, Asia, South America, Venezuela; different families.’ What we had was [we] were working with unaccompanied minors, but this is now work with the entire family. We said, ‘This is what we do [and have] been doing for ten years. Why don’t you come and meet? We’ll talk.’ We met last week, [the second week of June] and he took a tour and [asked] ‘Is there any way I can move my office here?... This is incredible and phenomenal.’ Their staff is now going to come on Tuesday to take a tour, so soon we believe we’ll be partnering and continuing the same work we’ve been doing with families. We expect our first family of about four from Afghanistan, and they’ll be staying.”
The sermon was deleted shortly after GnvInfo reported it happened. The 15 minutes where Vega went off about his plans was re-uploaded to Youtube.
Three people from the church have been arrested for committing sex crimes against underaged children: (1) convicted child molester Gabriel Hemenez; (2) Vega’s son, alleged rapist Christian Vargas; and (3) former associate pastor Jose Cruz’s son, alleged statutory rapist Noel Cruz.
If Poe really is working with ILC, then he is actively putting immigrant communities at risk of illegal harm against them.
Seven anonymous whistleblowers have reported financial frauds, spiritual abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and the coverup of all the former. More recently, three former Ignite School of Ministry (ISM) students have come forward with their names to publicly back up the anonymous whistleblowers’ claims.
GPD Captain Paris Owens said GPD is not regarding the civil lawsuits by three survivors of Hemenez’s sexual abuse.
The lawsuits state that one of the Plaintiffs called GPD up and asked them how the investigation into Hemenez’s cases was going and was told there wasn’t an investigation because ILC never reported it.
GPD Sergeant John Pandak said there’s “no probable cause to charge [ILC head pastor] Mark Vega with anything.”
A sexual abuse survivor and her father told GPD about Vega’s evidence concealment of sexual abuse. Vega had a private meeting instead of reporting the matter to police; GPD’s own Supplemental Report, which was supervised by Pandak himself, says so.
Gnvinfo asked Poe for an interview about ILC. He said no. Gnvinfo asked why? Poe raised his voice and said, “I don’t have to tell you why.”
GnvInfo said okay, threw a business card on Poe’s desk, told him it’s there if he changes his mind, and left the Building Belonging event.
