GnvInfo | GPD | Correspondence Report
On August 19, GnvInfo emailed Gainesville Police Department (GPD) Chief Nelson Moya, asking for a response to the bribery allegations issued by a former student at the Ignite School of Ministry of Ignite Life Center. He never responded.
On September 10, Lieutenant Tim Durst of GPD internal affairs said he was “asked to follow up on [provided] information.”
Durst was told he’d get a message at a later date for an interview time.
Two days later, GnvInfo asked Durst 17 questions over email before setting up a time for an interview. The interview was set up with the following exchanges:
The interview was audio recorded and transcribed.
Q: Hey.
Owens: Good afternoon.
Q: How’s it going?
Owens: How are you? This is Captain Owens.
Q: Hey, this is Jack.
Owens: Hi Jack. How are you?
Q: I’m good. How are you?
Owens: I’m wonderful. So, I am here with Lieutenant Durst and Sergeant John Pandak, who's the Sergeant of our Special Victims Unit.
Q: Yeah.
Owens: I am the Captain of the Criminal Investigations Bureau. I was made aware that you had some questions regarding.
Q: Yeah, have you guys been doing an investigation, and like, how long has that been going on for?
Owens: An investigation on whom?
Q: Into Ignite for the abuse, evidence concealment, or any other potential crimes, and are there any specific individuals at Ignite being investigated?
Owens: It was brought to our attention regarding the cases we have investigated. I’m not sure if you’re aware of those cases, the Gabriel Hemenez case.
Q: Yeah, I know about him and the pastor’s sons. Was there anything else?
Owens: No other folks were arrested or charged.
Q: Well yeah, I know that, but I just mean are you doing an investigation, cause I’m sure you’re aware of the GPD Supplemental Report that goes over evidence concealment allegations?
Owens: Any allegations that have been brought to our attention Mr. Walden have been investigated.
Q: What was the result of the investigation, or is it still active?
Owens: The investigation into Christian Vargas is still open.
Q: Is there an investigation into Mark Vega?
Owens: We have not investigated Mark Vega for anything.
Q: You have not investigated Mark. What, why is that?
Owens: I have Sergeant Pandak here.
Pandak: Hey, can you hear me?
Q: Yeah, I can hear you.
Pandak: We have no probable cause to charge Mark Vega with anything.
Q: When was the last time you called up the victims, or survivors, and let them know how things are going?
Pandak: I haven’t; we have victim advocates that reach out to them through the State Attorney's Office.
Q: Is this investigation being done by any specific departments of GPD, or is it just the Special Victims Unit?
Pandak: [Unclear]
Owens: Mr. Walden, can you just tell us what it is? I mean, what specific; you have specific questions about the cases?
Q: Well yeah, I was also wondering, do you know how the head pastor there knew Lonnie Scott?
Owens: Okay, so Mr. Vega, Pastor Vega was a chaplain here at the Gainesville Police Department. Once the allegations regarding the sexual abuse were brought to our attention, Pastor Vega was asked to step down as a chaplain, and his credentials were removed from our system.
Q: So why? Isn’t evidence concealment a crime? Why hasn’t there been any arrests when there's allegations of evidence concealment? Why is that not probable cause when it's multiple?
Owens: What evidence are you referring to?
Q: I’m talking about the GPD Supplemental Report. That’s what I’m referring to.
Owens: Which Supplemental Report?
Q: The one in Noel Cruz’s case.
Owens: And what does that consist of?
Q: It says that they had a private meeting and didn’t report reported sexual abuse to you.
Owens: The information was brought to our attention, which is why the investigation was launched, which is why, of course, the arrests were made in that case.
Q: In the civil lawsuits, it says that one of the victims called up GPD to ask. One of the Hemenez victims called up GPD to ask how that investigation was going, and they were allegedly told; it says in the civil lawsuits that GPD told them that there wasn’t an investigation because it was never reported to them. Is that true?
Owens: I am not aware of that, Mr. Walden.
Q: Do you think you can find out if that happened, its some serious allegations. Are you looking into it?
Owens: Well, a civil, you said it was contained in a civil lawsuit. I’m not aware of the civil lawsuits nor the contents thereof.
Q: Why are you not aware of the civil lawsuits if you’re investigating Ignite Life Center?
Owens: The civil lawsuits were not launched against the Gainesville Police Department.
Q: Has there been any investigation into Agustin Boissen by the [Department of Children and Families] DCF?
Owens: We can’t comment on DCF; I have no knowledge of Agustin Boissen.
Q: He’s one of the pastors there.
Owens: Yes, I’m unaware who that was.
Q: Is Judge William Davis-the judge presiding over Vargas’ case; is he aware that when Vargas was scheduled to be in New York with his parents from April 1 - April 10, Vega appeared on stage at Ignite in Gainesville on April 7 and said, “I’m not supposed to be here, my wife is not supposed to be here.” He said with air quotes-raising like finger air quotes, “We are technically on vacation.” Is the judge aware of that?
Vega at an Ignite Life Center sermon on April 7
Owens: That’s a question you would have to ask the judge.
Q: I’ll try to get that to him; thank you. Does Chief Nelson Moya have any plans to like condemn the sexual violence at Ignite, like publicly, like how he condemned physical violence on-against one of his officers on Facebook?
Owens: That would be a question you’d have to ask Chief Moya.
Q: I emailed him.
Owens: Any time we have a case that rises to the level the public needs to know about it or something that we need information from the public, we absolutely will go through our public information officer and get that information out there to the community. Especially if it's a danger to the community or information that we need from the community.
Q: So do you think Ignite Life Center is a danger enough to the community that you need to make an announcement about it?
Owens: One of the cases, Mr. Walden, we did seek information from the community because we were looking for additional victims.
Q: But what about in Christian’s case or Noel’s case? Did you do it with them?
Owens: That case is still open.
Q: But you issued a statement when Hemenez’s case was open; you issued a statement right after his arrest.
Owens: Hemenez was an adult preying on a juvenile.
Q: Were there any officers besides Tony Ferro who associated with Ignite through Mariano Rivera’s Mariano Rivera Foundation?
Owens: I have no knowledge of that, sir.
Q: So have you looked into my investigation at all? The whistleblowers, their statements—are you taking any of that into consideration in your investigation?
Pandak: Well, I think that’s why we were calling here. You’re saying you haven’t found any evidence of bribery, but I guess you're still continuing with alleging the bribery.
Q: Well, I’m not alleging it. I’m not alleging that, sir; that was a [former ISM] student who was alleging that, and I was just quoting them. I was asking you if you’d like to respond. I even asked Nelson Moya, and I told him I didn’t see anything to warrant the allegations, but I still, as a journalist I have to post what someone is saying.
Owens: There have been no allegations of bribery, nor have we investigated any allegations of bribery.
Q: Alright, thank you. How can Gainesville rely on GPD to investigate sexual violence at Ignite when an internal investigation by GPD found Officer Brooke Shutterly unfounded after committing sexual violence on camera against three women at Coconut Cabaret?
Owens: Mr. Walden I cannot comment on that because I have no idea what that has to do with Ignite. Those are two totally different situations, or incidents, and I’m not at liberty. We haven’t found any allegations of anything sexual regarding Brooke Shutterly, and she no longer works for us.
Q: Okay, thanks for confirming she doesn’t work there anymore. I didn’t know that I appreciate you telling me. So about two quarterly updates ago, you were talking about the St. Patrick Interparish case at the quarterly update, and I was wondering if you ever addressed Ignite at any quarterly updates?
Owens: The arrest of those individuals involved in the Ignite case was reported in one of our quarterlies during that quarter.
Q: Was that the previous quarter before that? I don’t remember, but maybe I’m misremembering; I will double check.
[There were no announcements regarding Ignite Life Center at the GPD Quarterly Update in May 2024 following Noel Cruz’s arrest in February 2024. Owens made an announcement regarding St. Patrick Interparish at this meeting but did not regard Ignite Life Center.]
[At the first quarterly update to be held after Vargas’ and Hemenez’s arrests in November 2023, Owens did regard their arrests from July 2023.]
Owens at the November quarterly update talking about the Ignite Life Center arrests
Owens: When it happened is when we reported it.
Q: Alright, thanks. Are you aware of the recent outcomes with Chell’s cases, and do you think there’s any parallels between that and Ignite?
Owens: Which case, sir?
Q: At the St. Patrick Interparish case, do you think there’s any parallels between that and Ignite?
Owens: Those are two separate cases, no parallel.
Q: Alright. Just so I’m 100% clear, you’re not doing any investigation into evidence concealment? That’s completely out of the blue now; you’re not considering it?
Owens: We investigated the case, sir; we made arrests on the case.
Q: I know you’ve made arrests for the sexual violence. I’m talking about the pastors who are alleged to have covered it up by just about every single person who came forward to me.
….
Q: If you had a student tell you-
Owens: If someone wants to come forward to us.
Q: Would you reopen an investigation if you have more people coming to you saying there’s evidence concealment?
Owens: If there’s evidence to reopen a case, we will most definitely consider reopening that case.
Q: Is multiple people coming to you to tell you that, would that be considered evidence? Would their testimonies be evidence for you to reopen a case on evidence concealment?
Owens: If those folks have viable information to reopen a case, yes sir, we will. If that is the case, we will reopen the case.
Q: Do you think you can give me your number if anyone wants to reach out and has some evidence?
Owens: They can call our non-emergency number.
Q: I think they’d feel better contacting you directly since it has to do with sexual violence; it's a personal thing, and I don’t think people are gonna be comfortable just calling-
Owens: Sure, they can call our main criminal investigations number and ask for me.
Q: Can I get that number, please?
Owens: Yes, one second [352]-393-7706.
Q: Alright, well, that’s all the questions I had.
Owens: Thank you for calling. If you have any further questions, please give us a call.
Q: Thanks, I appreciate it. Have a good one.
Articles on this report’s contents may be released in the future. This report was published prior in the interest of public transparency.
