Thanks Kent! I was about to link this article when I saw your post. I personally know Steve Morales. In fact, his sister is the one who brought me into "the truth." Steve grew up with my husband in Chino Hills. My husband's mother took him in when his then "worldly" family was "persecuting" him for becoming a JW. Steve is also a former Bethelite!
My husband told me lots of stories Steve and other friends of his who, by the way, are and were witnesses when these things happened. Long before Steve was arrested for the rapes in Orange County, he used to go up to people's doors and while he talked to the women at the door, his friend Dino would break in through the back door. He never told my husband that they raped these women. Only that they stold their purses. But my husband knows him very well and believes Steve is responsible for many, many rapes before he finally got caught.
More scoop about Steve is the fact that he gave a public talk the Sunday before he was arrested and was seriously being considered for being appointed as an elder! The day before his arrest he was disfellowshipped. The police had contacted his wife to let her know he was going to be arrested and she called the elders. When the news broke out of his arrest, the witnesses in the area started saying that he was not a JW because he was previously disfellowshipped. His wife, Cynthia and their two kids were at the last District Convention we attended where we sat together. I told my husband then that something strange was up with Steve. Although I never liked him because he was so self-righteous! By the time of his arrest, we were already well on our way out of the borg.
When the news first broke out, his whole family (now witnesses and the most self-righteous types you would ever know) said it was all lies and Satan's persecution. Others who never liked the family were the ones who said Jehovah had kept the organization clean because Steve was df'd before his arrest. I would ask, "But didn't he commit the acts WHILE STILL ACTIVE? And wasn't he giving public talks - perhaps the SAME DAY as he was raping children?"
Never went over well. But I avoided getting pinned by the elders.
Just some more scoop for ya'll.
