A youth pastor at Grace Community Church of Saddleback Valley has been arrested for alleged sexual assaults of several females ranging from their late teens to early 20s at the Lake Forest place of worship, throughout Orange County and during church sponsored international trips to such locales as Moldova, Costa Rica and South Africa.
So far, Sean Patrick Aday, 38, of Lake Forest, has been arrested on suspicion of rape, sodomy, penetration with a foreign object and sexual assault of known victims, but investigators believes there may be others out there.
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The investigation was sparked in October, when an alleged female victim contacted sheriff's investigators to claim Aday assaulted her sexually while he worked as the youth pastor at the 40-year-old, non-denominational church at 26052 Trabuco Road, according to Lt. Jeff Hallock, the sheriff's spokesman.
Many more accusers–some parishoners, others volunteers and none related to one another–were discovered shortly thereafter, Hallock added, and the church went on to fire Aday last month. He allegedly assaulted some females inside the church and some on other church property.
After a traffic stop Friday, Aday was arrested and booked into Orange County Jail. He posted $500,000 bond and was released from custody Saturday morning, Hallock says.
Meanwhile, investigators urge anyone who believes they were a victim of Aday to call the Orange County Sheriff's Department's Special Victim's Unit at 714.647.7418 or 714.647.7000. Anonymous tips may be submitted to Orange County Crime Stoppers at 855.847.6227 (855-TIP-OCCS), via occrimestoppers.org or by texting to 274637 (C-R-I-M-E-S) from a cell phone. (All text messages should begin with the letters “OCCS”.)
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.