UPDATED::Catholic Priest in East Bay Arrested for Alleged Child Sexual Abuse

UPDATE::  East Bay priest charged with sexually abusing child facing nearly five years in prison 

An East Bay priest who repeatedly sexually assaulted a child is facing nearly five years in state prison, officials said.

Hector David Mendoza-Vela on Friday pleaded no contest to five counts of lewd or lascivious acts on a child age 14 or 15, court documents show.

Last month, he pleaded not guilty to 30 criminal counts filed against him in April by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.

Mendoza-Vela is facing four years and eight months in prison under a plea agreement with the district attorney’s office, according to Teresa Drenick, a spokeswoman for the office.

A Catholic priest has been arrested on suspicion of 30 counts of suspected child sexual abuse in Alameda County, authorities said Sunday.

The Rev. Hector David Mendoza-Vela, parochial administrator of Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Fremont, is in custody at Santa Rita Jail, according to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office. The alleged abuse involved one victim age 14 or 15 over an 18-month period starting in 2016 when Mendoza-Vela was assigned to St. John the Baptist Church in San Lorenzo.

The abuse occurred in the victim’s home in unincorporated Hayward, sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Kelly said.

Catholic Priest in East Bay Arrested for Alleged Child Sexual Abuse