Ignite Life Center Defendant Wanted Ankle Monitor Off Shortly Before FMD Youth Camp
On July 9, alleged statutory rapist Noel Cruz of Pentecostal church Ignite Life Center (ILC) of the Florida Multicultural District (FMD) of the Assemblies of God made a motion to remove his ankle monitor, which is one of his pretrial release conditions. The motion to remove the ankle monitor was denied on July 16.
Cruz was released on February 20, one day after he was arrested and charged with lewd and lascivious behavior for allegedly taking advantage of and committing statutory rape against a 15-year-old girl when he was 20.
Promotional images show Cruz made the motion to remove the ankle monitor just two weeks before FMD’s scheduled youth camp in Lakeland. ILC will be taking a youth group to the summer camp called “Marked.” It starts today and will end on Saturday.
It cannot be independently verified if the correlation in dates is coincidental, or intentional on Cruz’s part.
ILC has been legally permitted to transport a youth group to another location despite three people from the church being arrested for committing sex crimes against underaged children: (1) former ILC employee/volunteer convicted child molester Gabriel Hemenez, (2) head pastor Mark Vega’s son alleged rapist Christian Vargas, and (3) former associate pastor Jose Cruz’s son alleged statutory rapist Noel Cruz.
Jose Cruz was reportedly let-go or willingly left shortly after his son was arrested.
The first anonymous whistleblower from ILC to speak publicly on GnvInfo said in a previous article that Noel and Jose Cruz’s names have not been mentioned much around the church recently and that “they have been laying low since they left Ignite.” This is unlike Vargas, who has been attending ILC with his father while on pretrial release.
A Gainesville Police Department Supplemental Report shows Jose Cruz, along with Mark Vega, wanted to handle reported sexual abuses committed by their sons internally.
Shortly before the GPD Supplemental Report was released publicly, the aforementioned ILC whistleblower made a statement calling out Mark Vega and Jose Cruz for the coverup.
Furthermore there are three active civil lawsuits against FMD and ILC for allegedly covering up Hemenez's crimes against kids.
Cruz’s next court date is set for August 20.
Vargas’ next court date is set for August 8.
ILC has a long and growing list of coverups, civil lawsuits, criminal cases, celebrity connections and inappropriate actions that have been covered on GnvInfo. Nearly two dozen articles pertaining to ILC can be found on the page linked below.
