A New York judge on Monday rejected the defense proposal Eva García de Joaquín, mother of the leader of the La Luz del Mundo church, to pay bail 5 million dollars and face in freedom an accusation of organized crime and sex trafficking.
Eva García, 80, was arrested on September 10 at her luxurious home in California, as a result of an extensive investigation that also points to her son Naasón Joaquín and other members of the congregation to participate in a criminal scheme to abuse girls and enrich themselves with donations from the faithful.
Eva García's lawyers had asked District Judge Loretta Preska to release her client from the Essex County Jail in New Jersey and leave her under house arrest with an electronic shackle. They proposed the payment of a bail of 5 million dollars, which would be partially guaranteed with properties of eight of the woman's relatives.
Her main argument was that Eva García requires specialized medical care that would not be provided adequately in prison. This Monday the lawyers assured that the woman was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2023.
To try to show Eva García's alleged weakness, her defense presented Judge Preska with a photograph in which she is seen in a wheelchair upon her return to Los Angeles at the end of August, a few days before her arrest, taken by a federal agent who spied on her.
The image, however, also exposes her luxurious lifestyle, traveling with a suitcase and a brand bag Louis Vuitton rated in more than 7,000 dollars
"Eva is a fragile, tiny eighty-year-old woman who represents a small part of the government's extensive indictment", attorney Priya Chaudhry said in a memo filed earlier this month in the Southern District of New York.
“At her age, the idea that she would abandon her family, her legal status and her home to become a fugitive, spending the rest of her years in deteriorating health, on the run and looking over her shoulder, is implausible”, she added. Chaudhry.
But the Federal Prosecutor's Office fears that the mother of the called ‘Apostle of Jesus Christ’ will escape justice given the seriousness of the crimes she faces, which carry a punishment of up to two life sentences.
Regarding medical care in Essex prison, the government stated that they have taken the necessary measures. “García de Joaquín is not the first person with health problems, nor the first 80-year-old person detained in this District”, said prosecutor Jay Clayton in a court document presented last week.
Judge Preska agreed with prosecutors' arguments and agreed that García remain detained.
Also at the hearing were his son Naasón Joaquín and his nephew, Joram Núñez, also named in this new federal case and imprisoned in a Brooklyn prison.
The next hearing was scheduled for March 12, 2026.