This report was updated on July 12.
A South Bay man was arrested Wednesday on charges that he sexually molested teenage boys during a decade of church trips at his house in Morgan Hill.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said DA investigators reopened a cold case against 54-year-old Norlan Macias, of San Jose, in 2020 when a retired police officer reported he heard a man describing a molestation on a podcast called “Preacher Boys.”
Macias is charged with molestations of five boys between 2001 and 2012.
An investigation into an intial complaint filed by a teen against Macias in 2013 was dropped by San Jose police, prosecutors said.
Police and prosecutors are seeking others who may have been victims of the San Jose man, who was a janitor at the Campbell Union and Mountain View school districts.
Macias faces 11 counts of felony sexual molestation of five minors, ranging from 8 to 17. He was scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon in the Hall of Justice in San Jose. If convicted, he could face life in prison, prosecutors said.
“I would like to thank the retired police officer for his diligence and dedication,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. “As with many officers, his mission of protecting our community’s children never stopped. I hope all of us take that same responsibility.”
Prosecutors said the case against Macias began in 2020, when a retired San Jose police officer recognized Macias from a video podcast that documented child abuse associated with religious institutions. The officer called 911, and the District Attorney's Office opened an investigation.
Officers said the defendant would take a group of teenage parishioners of the North Valley Baptist Church out on a boat at Lake Anderson in Morgan Hill. The boys would then go to the defendant's house in Morgan Hill, where the molestations took place, according to prosecutors.
While investigating this case, an investigator stumbled on a 2013 San Jose Police Department report that a minor said that he also had been molested by Macias. The boy stated that the defendant lived near him and that he molested him after hiring him to do work on his home. After taking an initial statement, San Jose police dropped the case, citing “lack of victim cooperation,” accordng to the District Attorney's Office.
Rosen asked that anyone with any information about the suspect and molestation to contact Deputy District Attorney Joanna Lee at [email protected].
