Virgin Mary painting stolen to pay for Abortion

HavelockV · 08-22-2009, 12:30 PM

http://news.aol.com/article/virgin-m...to-fund/634948

Quote:

OMAHA, Neb. (Aug. 22) - A Nebraska man who stole a painting of the Virgin Mary to finance an abortion for a teen he ***** has been convicted of first-degree sexual assault and felony theft.

Aurelio Vallerillo-Sanchez, 39, of Omaha pleaded no contest to the charges Friday and faces up to 70 years in prison when sentenced in October, Douglas County prosecutor Brenda Beadle said Saturday.

A call to the county public defender representing Vallerillo-Sanchez wasn't answered Saturday.

Beadle said Vallerillo-Sanchez fled to Mexico with the 300-year-old painting worth $100,000 and the pregnant teen in March 2007.

"The plan was that when they got to Mexico, she was to undergo an abortion," she said.

When an abortion wasn't possible, Vallerillo-Sanchez pushed to have the baby given up for adoption, Beadle said: "He wanted to do everything he could to get rid of this baby 'cause it was evidence against him."

The teen returned to Nebraska after giving birth, the prosecutor said.
Vallerillo-Sanchez was arrested in February after DNA linked him to the September 2006 assault of the then-14-year-old girl.

His children gave police information about the theft during the investigation into the sexual assault. His son told police he served as a lookout as his father stole the painting from St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha. Vallerillo-Sanchez sold the painting for $3,000 in Mexico, his daughter told police.

Vallerillo-Sanchez has been linked to at least four other thefts in the Omaha area, but charges were not filed as part of a plea deal, Beadle said.

Repulsive behavior, but rather ironic, nonetheless.

Terminus · 08-22-2009, 01:05 PM

Part of me wants to laugh, but the other part of me feels extremely sad for the girl and sickened by the man. People with such an utter disregard for human life, be of it the child or the girl, don't deserve it for themselves, in my opinion.

allyssa · 08-22-2009, 02:25 PM

This is why the abortion pill should be legallized!..women have the right to choose, making it traumatic for them isn't going to solve anything....and their would be no clinics to blow up just pharmaceutical companies and the dust from the explosion could facilitate mass hallucination...

HavelockV · 08-22-2009, 02:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by allyssa

This is why the abortion pill should be legallized!..women have the right to choose, making it traumatic for them isn't going to solve anything....and their would be no clinics to blow up just pharmaceutical companies and the dust from the explosion could facilitate mass hallucination...

This is beside the point. In this case, the perverse ruffian wanted the abortion to conceal the fact that he ***** and impregnated an underaged, 14-year-old girl. Read the article before jumping to hysterical conclusions.

allyssa · 08-22-2009, 03:01 PM

I did read the article...thanks for the condescention, it goes nicely with your cape,
alas obviously the dude is a fucked up pervert but I was referring to the girl who had to actually bring this fucking pricks child into the world as well as go all the way to mexico and endure even greater trauma you freak!

Lady Christine · 08-22-2009, 04:08 PM

Allyssa the abortion pill is only meant to be used 24 hours after the fact. If you're referring to Medical abortions, those actually requires medical assistance to have it properly done and is actually more expensive in some areas to have done as opposed to surgery. There's more to it then just a pharmaceutical company such as counseling and assorted other expenses.

To me it's rather ironic you get upset about someone being condescending to you, yet when you do it's perfectly fine. I personally don't see anything wrong with what HavelockV said, and I think you might want to take that advice on jumping to hysterical conclusions into consideration.

HavelockV · 08-22-2009, 04:12 PM

I am working under the assumption that the sex was nonconsensual, since the article does not mention anything about the event being the statutory violation of a minor and only refers to the incident as '****'.

Abortions for minors are not illegal in the United States, but under a certain age, which varies from state to state, parental consent is needed for an abortion procedure. Now, again, if the girl was violated against her will, then I can hardly imagine that her parents would object to granting permission for the abortion. However, seeking this permission would have exposed the rapist. He could not allowe this to happen.

The Morning After Pill is available for women over the age of 17, whether from a physician, a pharmacy, or an organization like Planned Parenthood. For women under the age of 17, it must be acquired via a prescrption from a healthcare provider.

You mention women having 'the right to choose'. This poor girl apparently did not have that right. It was denied to her by man who violated her because he feared that he would be discovered and caught. And allow me to play Devil's Advocate for a moment and suggest that if the emergency contraceptive were readily available to her, it's possible that this man would have succeeded in concealing his crime, which I find to be a terrible prospect.

Again, though, I will readily concede that if the intercourse was consensual, it sheds an entirely new light on things.

Lady Christine · 08-22-2009, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HavelockV

The Morning After Pill is available for women over the age of 17, whether from a physician, a pharmacy, or an organization like Planned Parenthood. For women under the age of 17, it must be acquired via a prescrption from a healthcare provider.

At the same time though, the morning after pill is meant to be taken 24 hours after, at max it's supposed to be effective for up to a week after. If they didn't know she was pregnant within that time frame the pill would be useless.

HavelockV · 08-22-2009, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lady Christine

At the same time though, the morning after pill is meant to be taken 24 hours after, at max it's supposed to be effective for up to a week after. If they didn't know she was pregnant within that time frame the pill would be useless.

An excellent point, milady. *hat tips*

allyssa · 08-22-2009, 04:59 PM

their is an abortion pill which is used in the first trimester, up to 7 weeks into the pregnancy, which has been legalized in Europe they do not make it legal in the us because of the countries religious and political values, women's groups in canada are trying to make it legal in canada but at this time we have a conservative government who is actually trying to shut women's rights down because he is a reformer....an ultra conservative who just passed a bill to declare women do not have equal rights...

allyssa · 08-22-2009, 05:07 PM

I do not see what is wrong with expressing the desire for less strife, for women....unfortunately equality hasn't been acheived and I am annoyed that expressing feminism is considered hysterical....I simply feel very passionate about the subject.

Saya · 08-22-2009, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by allyssa

their is an abortion pill which is used in the first trimester, up to 7 weeks into the pregnancy, which has been legalized in Europe they do not make it legal in the us because of the countries religious and political values, women's groups in canada are trying to make it legal in canada but at this time we have a conservative government who is actually trying to shut women's rights down because he is a reformer....an ultra conservative who just passed a bill to declare women do not have equal rights...

What did Harper do now? I haven't been following Canadian politics as of late (I suck, I know).

Quote:

I do not see what is wrong with expressing the desire for less strife, for women....unfortunately equality hasn't been acheived and I am annoyed that expressing feminism is considered hysterical....I simply feel very passionate about the subject.

I get that girls and women should have access to emergency contraception but I doubt this would have helped, I found an article that elaborated:

http://www.omaha.com/article/2009082...0/-1/FRONTPAGE

Quote:

An Omaha man had less-than-divine designs for the centuries-old Virgin Mary painting he stole from St. Cecilia Cathedral.

Aurelio Vallecillo-Sanchez planned to use money from selling the sacred painting to pay for an abortion for the 14-year-old girl he *****, prosecutors say.

That wasn't the only detail revealed Friday as Vallecillo-Sanchez, 39, pleaded no contest to sexual assault and theft.

Prosecutors say he threatened to kill the girl and her family if she went to police about the sexual assault.
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And, prosecutors say, they believe Vallecillo-Sanchez was responsible for the thefts of dozens of pieces of religious artwork from at least five area churches in 2006 and 2007.

Vallecillo-Sanchez, 39, pleaded no contest to first-degree sexual assault for impregnating the 14-year-old girl and to felony theft for stealing “The Virgin Immaculata” — a painting St. Cecilia officials valued at $100,000.

He faces up to 70 years in prison — 50 years on the sexual-assault charge and 20 on the theft charge — when he is sentenced in October.

“He is very remorseful and ashamed,” said his attorney, Assistant Douglas County Public Defender Kelly Steenbock. “He will give a sincere statement expressing that remorse at sentencing.”

Brother William Woeger, curator of the St. Cecilia Cathedral art collection, said he was glad the plea had come to pass.

“Hopefully this will put some closure on things for the young woman, and maybe put some closure on it for the other churches,” Woeger said.

Vallecillo-Sanchez, who will turn 40 on Monday, stood with hands cuffed and head bowed Friday as Chief Deputy Douglas County Attorney Brenda Beadle detailed the crimes:

In September 2006, Vallecillo-Sanchez impregnated a 14-year-old girl after repeatedly sexually assaulting her.

The pregnancy, in turn, caused Vallecillo-Sanchez to panic. He urged her to tell people that a teenage boy was the father. He then threatened to kill the girl and her family if she told anyone he was the father.

“He threatened to beat her so badly that her mom would not be able to recognize her,” Beadle said.

Vallecillo-Sanchez then decided he had to find a way to permanently conceal the crime. He wanted to take the girl to Mexico to obtain an abortion but needed money to do so.

Vallecillo-Sanchez set his sights on “The Virgin Immaculata,” a 300-year-old painting.

Police investigating the sexual assault of the girl spoke with his two teenage children. The children said Vallecillo-Sanchez took them with him to St. Cecilia early on March 16, 2007.

The teenagers said their father went into a chapel next to the sanctuary and used a box cutter to cut all four sides of the 4-by-6-foot painting.

An alarm went off — and Vallecillo-Sanchez rolled up the painting and raced with his children to the car. Soon after, he took the painting and his sexual-assault victim to Mexico. He hoped to get $30,000 for the painting. He got $3,000.

He then took the girl to a doctor in Mexico, hoping to abort the pregnancy. The doctor viewed an ultrasound, determined that the fetus was far along and said an abortion would be dangerous.

The girl also saw the ultrasound and decided she couldn't go through with it.

After returning to Omaha, he used threats to ensure the victim's silence — before and after the birth.

But earlier this year, he left for Mexico. With him out of town, the victim went to her mom, then to police. She acknowledged Vallecillo-Sanchez, not some teenage boy, was the baby's father.

Police waited for him to return to Omaha and arrested him.

They then spoke with his teenage children, who revealed his history of art heists. Omaha police took the children to churches where thefts occurred.

From the children's and other witness accounts, Beadle said, prosecutors believe Vallecillo-Sanchez is responsible for thefts of dozens of pieces of artwork from at least five Omaha churches from May 2006 to March 2007.

One of the children also remembered him stealing a painting of Jesus being whipped. However, police have been unable to determine a church that lost a similar painting.

Faced with further theft charges, Vallecillo-Sanchez pleaded no contest to his original charges.

The Rev. Anthony Espinosa, who was pastor of South Omaha's Immaculate Conception and St. Joseph Catholic parishes when paintings were stolen there, said the man's story was warped beyond any scenario he had imagined for the thefts.

“There's definitely mental problems there, to be so without conscience,” said Espinosa, who now serves parishes in Schuyler and Columbus, Neb.

The thief robbed Immaculate Conception parishioners of some of their cultural heritage as well as their church's art. He took a large painting of a Polish saint's vision of Jesus as the Divine Mercy, one of three of its kind painted in Poland, the historic homeland of parish founders. He ripped from the walls six of the church's 14 Stations of the Cross paintings, which tell the story of Christ's crucifixion. They traditionally adorn Catholic church walls. Immaculate Conception members had sponsored the stations in 1897. Parishioners paid to restore them in the 1980s.

“They were all intended as gifts for everyone to enjoy in praise of God, and not for any other use,” Espinosa said.

In return for Vallecillo-Sanchez's pleas, Beadle said, prosecutors agreed not to file additional theft or terroristic threats charges for a few reasons.

First of all, she said, he faces up to 70 years in prison.

Secondly, she said, Vallecillo-Sanchez would have no ability to make restitution. The paintings are gone — having been sold in Mexico. And Vallecillo-Sanchez has no money.

Beadle said her biggest concern is that Vallecillo-Sanchez “gets the maximum term.”

She compared Vallecillo-Sanchez to some of the killers she has prosecuted.

“I would liken him to the worst,” she said. “In some respects, it's worse than him taking her life because she's left to remember this whole ordeal. She has to raise a child that is a daily reminder of what happened to her.”

She did keep the baby and is raising it, and didn't want the abortion either after seeing the ultrasound. Her consent meant nothing for two years, we can't say that a pill would have helped any, if anything it seems it was he who would have pushed it on her. I feel so bad for her, and I hope he gets locked up until the day he dies.