Tucson ‘cult' church member molested boy hundreds of times in pews, new victim alleges

Editor’s note: This story contains graphic descriptions of sexual violence against children that some readers may find disturbing.

Marcello had just turned 11 when his assigned seat in the pews at Golden Dawn Tabernacle in Tucson, Arizona, changed. He would now sit away from his parents between two grown men. One man was a stranger to him.

Marcello was almost at the “age of accountability” — the age at which children in the fringe Christian church become culpable for their sins and must decide to get baptized or face eternal damnation in Hell, Marcello said.

Church rules dictated that those newly “accountable” children, 12 and older, sat near the front with other unmarried people, including adults, to reflect their newfound religious responsibility. At 11, Marcello was getting a spiritual head start.

Over multiple church services following the seating change in 1999, a 35-year-old man named Jose Mora gradually inched closer to Marcello until he could no longer see the velvety blue fabric of the pew between them, Marcello said. Mora then took his blazer off and placed it over his right leg and Marcello’s left leg.

That’s when the abuse started, Marcello said.

Hidden by the blazer, Mora started poking, prodding and stroking Marcello’s leg, Marcello said.

Marcello said he would cross his arms to protect his groin and dig his fingernails into Mora’s wrist to try to get him to stop, but Mora wouldn’t. Marcello said Mora forced his hand down Marcello’s pants and groped his genitals.

Once the groping started, Marcello said, Mora molested him every week in all three weekly church services until he was about 15 — roughly 500 services, if not more.

Marcello said the abuse culminated with Mora violently raping him at another church member's house when he was 14.

“He took away my childhood,” Marcello said. “Every time, a little piece of my childhood just wilted away.”

Mora could not be reached for comment on these new allegations.

Marcello, who asked to be identified by his first name only to protect his privacy, is the third victim from Golden Dawn Tabernacle to allege that Mora molested him when he was a boy. An Arizona Daily Star/Lee Enterprises investigation found that Mora’s behavior was well-known in the church community but ignored by Pastor Isaac Noriega and church leaders for years.

Both Mora and Noriega now face criminal charges, in part resulting from the newspaper team’s findings — Mora for alleged child molestation, and Noriega for allegedly failing to report it as required by law.

Marcello said he kept his allegations secret until he left the church and never told the pastor what happened to him because he feared public humiliation and ostracization. But Marcello said Pastor Noriega fostered an unsafe environment for children with “cultish rules” that led to his abuse.

“Jose Mora didn’t act alone. His hands may have been the ones that touched me, but Isaac Noriega built the system that delivered me to him,” Marcello said. “He designed the rules. He placed me in that seat. He stripped away my protections.”

‘It’s the truth’

During a Sept. 15 phone call, Noriega emphasized that he had never before been told about Marcello’s allegations. He said Mora never confided in him about abusing Marcello.

“I don’t know anything about it,” Noriega said. “And I know that Jose Mora would have told me that. Since all this came out, he talked to me and told me everything. And he also told that to the police.”

Noriega accused Marcello of being a liar. He said Marcello is part of a group of former congregants whom he claims are spreading “gossip and lies” to attack him.

Twenty former church members have accused Golden Dawn, which also goes by the name Tabernaculo Emanuel, of being part of a “cult” that excommunicates people, isolates members and controls congregants' financial and health decisions — all of which Noriega denies.

Noriega said there has never been a sexual abuse incident inside his church, and if something like that were happening while he preached, church leaders would have seen it and reported it to him.

“That could have never happened. Never. That’s a lie,” Noriega said when a reporter explained Marcello’s allegations of what went on during church.

Noriega said Marcello is bringing this up to try to "sue the church" and go after the church's money.

Marcello said this is not his intent. It is past the statute of limitations for Marcello to pursue civil action against the church. 

Multiple former church members corroborated some details of Marcello's story. 

Former congregants John Calvo and Gabriel Cordova independently said they remembered Mora and Marcello sitting next to each other. Luis Santos, another former congregant, said Marcello or his brother sat either next to or near Mora. 

Noriega connected a reporter with his nephew, Jason Noriega, who claimed Mora couldn't have sat next to Marcello.

Jason said that from about 1999 to about 2004, when he was a teenager to young adult, he sat in the second or third row between Mora and either Marcello or one of Marcello's brothers. The boys looked similar. And an adult male, not a child, sat on Mora's other side, Jason said. 

Marcello said he and Mora sat next to each other in the second row for about five years.

Calvo, Cordova, Santos and Marcello independently said they believed Jason sat in the first row — not the second. Marcello said his brother, Elisha, sat in the front row next to Jason. 

Calvo said he noticed that Mora would always take his jacket off and set it down on the seat next to him, but the back of the pew blocked his view while they were sitting. When congregants stood up together, Calvo could see the jacket lying on the pew.

Another former congregant, JoAnn Malena, said she saw signs that Marcello was distraught when congregants would stand, but she wasn’t sure what to do.

“It’s the truth. He would shake,” Malena said of Marcello. “He would stand there, close his eyes, fold his arms and just shake.”

Emmanuel, who is Marcello’s brother, said he sat near Mora and Marcello for about a year when he was 12 or 13 in the early 2000s. He said he doesn't remember the exact seating arrangement, but he was likely on the opposite side of Mora from Marcello. 

When Emmanuel fell asleep or wasn’t paying attention, he said Mora would squeeze his leg and massage his thighs. He said other adults would wake children up, but “Mora would do it in a weird way.”

“Joseph (sic) Mora would put his hands on my legs, and I was like, ‘Dude, why are you touching me?’ And I hit him,” Emmanuel said. “I hit his hand off my legs, so he never did anything like he did to my brother. I think he tried, but he knew I was not having it. And he stopped. And then eventually they (church leaders) moved me.”

When asked about this incident during a September 2024 interview with reporters, Mora said he sat next to a boy in the pews, but he doesn’t remember touching the boy’s leg.

Mora, who is incarcerated at the Pima County Jail, blocked a reporter on an inmate messaging app over the summer and can no longer be contacted directly while in jail. His public defender did not respond to a voicemail requesting comment and an email outlining Marcello’s allegations.

‘You’re a predator’

Mora, 58, was arrested and charged in April with child sex crimes for allegedly molesting two other young boys from the church during incidents at his home around 2009 and 2012. Mora faces life in prison for the charges.

In the September 2024 newspaper interview, Mora admitted to touching the genitals and buttocks of Philip, whom Mora said he knew was only 11 or 12 at the time. Philip is the first victim in the criminal case and asked to go by his first name only in newspaper reports. Philip said Mora also penetrated him with his fingers and forced oral and genital contact, which Mora denies.

Mora declined to answer a question about whether he sexually abused other boys.

“I don't know what to answer there because, no. I don't know if you’re setting a trap for me or I don't know what,” Mora said at the time. “I don't know what to say anymore.”

Several months later, in June 2025, Jonathan Santos shared his story publicly for the first time in the Arizona Daily Star. He is the second victim in the case against Mora.

Santos said Mora groped his buttocks and genitals in about 2009. Mora then used his fingers to penetrate Santos, Santos said. He was between 7 and 9 years old. Mora was in his early 40s.

“You need to be held accountable,” Santos said, directing his words to Mora. “There needs to be justice on what you did, how you preyed (on) younger kids. You’re a predator. You’re a pedophile.”

Court proceedings

Marcello, now 37, reported his allegations to Tucson police for the first time in June. According to the court record, Marcello has not been added as a victim in the ongoing criminal case against Mora. But Marcello said his understanding from detectives is that there will be “charges against Mora for what happened to me.”

Marcello said he decided to come forward publicly with his story because he was frustrated that Noriega did not attend recent court hearings for his failure-to-report case.

Pastors are mandatory reporters who are required by law to make a report to law enforcement or the Department of Child Safety when they have a “reasonable belief” that a child is the victim of abuse.

Noriega was arrested in June and charged with two counts of failure to report child abuse or neglect of a minor, one felony count and one misdemeanor. He faces up to two-and-a-half years in prison.

The felony count stems from Philip’s allegations, and the misdemeanor stems from allegations that Noriega did not report the alleged rape of a 7-year-old girl in the late 1980s by a teenage boy who was part of the church community. The teenager was a different alleged perpetrator, not Mora.

Philip said that Noriega knew about his abuse and used his authority as pastor to pressure Philip’s father against going to the police. Philip’s father said Noriega told him, “‘We don’t go to the law,’” which Noriega denies.

At his Sept. 5 hearing, Noriega had his attorney appear in court on his behalf, citing ongoing health issues. Noriega is 83. Noriega said in a phone call that he has “a doctor’s letter telling me that my memory has been decaying for decades.”

It’s not uncommon for defendants to have their attorneys appear for them in early court hearings. But a motion that congregant Calvo filed claims Noriega preached for multiple hours until 10 p.m. the night before the hearing.

Marcello said Noriega needs to face consequences for his actions instead of avoiding accountability by skipping court.

“This man is not bedridden. I don’t understand why he couldn’t show up for court,” Marcello said. “He lied to the judge.”

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“Noriega protects pedophiles,” he added.

Marcello said it was “hard to hear” that others went to Noriega for help and were dismissed, which allowed abuse to continue to happen to more children. He said he wants to “do anything I can” to stop Noriega from repeating that pattern.

“Part of me obviously is just upset,” Marcello said. “But I’m also hopeful that with me speaking out and everything that’s going on, that others, too, will speak out, and we can all do something to help stop all this.”

Noriega's next hearing is Oct. 10. Mora's is on Sept. 30. 

‘Agony’

Marcello said he was in the home of a fellow churchgoer in the spring or summer of 2002 when he saw something that made him panic: Mora, crouched on the bathroom floor, fixing a plumbing issue behind the toilet.

Marcello and his mother were helping a young woman move out of her house. Property records show the woman sold her house on Sept. 24, 2002, which aligns with Marcello’s timeline of events.

The woman, who is still in the church, did not return calls and texts to phone numbers associated with her. Marcello's mother could not be asked questions because a stroke paralyzed her years ago and left her nonverbal. 

Mora was called to help the woman, too, because he was a handyman. The tight-knit Golden Dawn community relies on each other for nearly everything, from jobs to their children’s education to free labor to construct new church buildings, congregants say. Fellow congregants are known as “Brothers” and “Sisters.”

“As a community, we were conditioned to think it was OK to leave your kids alone with these ‘Brothers,’” Marcello said.

Marcello tried to avoid Mora, but his mother and the woman left to take boxes down the street to a storage unit, leaving him and Mora alone.

Soon after, “Mora hunted me down,” Marcello said.

Mora found Marcello in one of the bedrooms and approached him, slowly at first, Marcello said. Mora pulled Marcello against him, but Marcello said that when he reacted with disgust, Mora became more aggressive.

Marcello said Mora grabbed him from behind and ripped off Marcello’s jeans to his ankles. Mora stepped on the jeans and held Marcello’s waist so he couldn’t escape, Marcello said. Mora then penetrated Marcello with his penis, Marcello said.

Marcello said the action was so forceful that it caused his anus to rip and bleed. It was “agony,” he said.

“I shrieked in pain,” Marcello said. “I wailed and begged for him to stop.”

Marcello said his visible pain “only seemed to fuel Mora's repugnant thirst.” Mora “completed what he had sought out to do,” then returned to the plumbing, Marcello said.

Mora’s attorney did not respond to an email requesting comment on the alleged rape.

Marcello wrote about the experience in an essay he shared with his family in 2023, which his brothers, Emmanuel and Elisha, confirmed. They said it was the first time Marcello told them about the abuse.

“In that bleak moment, I confronted the darkest ordeal of my young existence, a torment that would scar my 14-year-old soul forever,” Marcello wrote in 2023. “I was adrift in a sea of anguish, utterly alone and utterly broken.

“As I lay there, the room itself seemed to close in on me, as if those very walls held witness to my suffering. Blood and viscous discharge clung to me, a visceral reminder of the heinous violation I had just endured.

“How could I let this happen to myself? I pondered (as) I aimlessly walked out of the dimly lit room like a zombie lost in the abyss of despair. ... My childhood, once a realm of purity and joy, had been irrevocably tainted, and my entire world had been cruelly upended.”

Fear

Marcello walked outside in the pouring rain, sat on a curb and sobbed. His tears blended with raindrops. Pain lingered between his legs.

“Why? Why me?” Marcello remembers thinking. “I was scared. I had no idea what was going on. This person, whom I barely knew, felt that he could violate me in such a horrible way. I didn’t know what to think. I was happy it was over. I was happy I was alive. I was happy that nobody knew.”

Marcello said the church raised him to believe that if you were sexually assaulted, you must have done something to deserve it. He blamed himself for what happened.

He said he was also afraid that if other congregants found out, they would know he was gay, which wasn’t allowed in the church.

Marcello had always known he was gay, but he pretended not to be because he was taught it was a sin. He wanted to get baptized, marry a woman, stay in the church and live a “holy life.”

Marcello said he didn't want to be "outed and rejected from this community that I really, really, really wanted to be a part of.”

So he dried up his tears and pretended nothing was wrong.

A few days later, Marcello had to attend another service at Golden Dawn Tabernacle. Mora groped him again, Marcello said.

“This time I felt like a prisoner. This time, I wanted to die. This time I lost faith in God,” Marcello said.

“From that point on, could one believe in God afterward?” Marcello said. “Could God let that happen to a 14-year-old? And if so, why? What on earth could a 14-year-old do to deserve something like that? What justification does God have for that? I just don’t understand it, and I never will.”

Marcello said the molestations continued again every service, but he's not sure for how long. 

The only relief came when the church replaced the pews with rows of individual seats, each with armrests — a change that one congregant, Cordova, specifically remembered happening in either 2002 or 2003.

It was then that his abuse ended, Marcello said. The armrest finally separated Marcello from his “monster.”

‘Intimidating leadership’

Although Marcello did not report his alleged abuse to the pastor, he said Noriega still bears responsibility for what happened.

Marcello feared not only being outed as gay but also being publicly humiliated from the pulpit, a frequent occurrence in the church, he said. He vividly remembers the “public lashing” of one woman who was caught cheating on her husband.

“(Noriega) tore her apart in front of the entire congregation,” Marcello recalled. “He was yelling. I remember just yelling at everybody.”

“You don’t want to be next,” Marcello said.

Noriega said he “never” spoke about that woman from the pulpit and has “never” publicly humiliated congregants.

One of the unspoken church rules was to remain silent and seated with your head facing forward during Noriega’s two- to three-hour church services, Marcello said. No fidgeting. No disruptions. No bathroom breaks. Mandatory attendance. Marcello said he wanted to follow the rules even as he was being abused. 

“The weight of Golden Dawn’s intimidating leadership and the fear of ignominy kept me rooted in my seat, silent, enduring the discomfort while Noriega raged on from the pulpit,” Marcello said.

Church leaders known as deacons patrolled the entrances to the church bathroom area, denying entry and insisting congregants return to the pews, Marcello said. 

Noriega said attendance at his church is not mandatory. He confirmed that deacons are "there all the time watching everything."

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Marcello said Noriega indoctrinated his mother into believing her 11-year-old son would be on the "ultimate path to spiritual salvation" if he sat alone in the front pews with single men, which put him in harm's way in the first place. Marcello said he blames Noriega for teaching that doctrine, not his mother for following it. 

Noriega said former church members act as if he has power over them, but he simply preaches from the Bible and then lets them make their own decisions. 

“These are the ways people are talking. They talk like if I had authority over them," Noriega said. "I never had no authority.”

But former members say their pastor is their ultimate authority — even above law enforcement. They said they are taught not to call the police. 

The group of about 500 congregants is discouraged from contact with outsiders, creating an isolated community where Marcello was put in Mora's path repeatedly. 

Since congregants largely only interact with each other, Marcello said, they are told they can trust one another — even men like Mora.

“I 100 percent hold Jose Mora accountable for what happened to me,” Marcello said. “But I also hold Isaac Noriega and Golden Dawn officials accountable for what happened to me.

“For, were it not for Isaac Noriega and his perverted and downright cultish rules, I never would have sat in the front pews of a church where my childhood died.”

Marcello left the church when he was 16 and moved to New York City when he was 21. He said he was able to move past what happened to him and have a life filled with love and freedom. He went to fashion school and traveled the world. He said his "happy place" is the South of France.

Marcello said he was hesitant to come forward and share the darkest parts of his life publicly. Part of him wanted to leave it in the past. But he said, “speaking out matters.”

“Every story told chips away at the secrecy that protects abusers,” he said. “Even if you feel small, your courage helps protect the next child. Speaking out isn’t defiance — it’s taking back the voice they tried to steal from you.”

Tucson police ask that anyone with information about Mora, pastor Noriega or the Golden Dawn Tabernacle call the child sexual assault unit at 520-837-7529.