By Claire Ballor Food Reporter. A Waco pastor was arrested on a prostitution charge Thursday, accused of paying for sex at a massage parlor. Before he handed himself over to authorities, Edward Ignacio Espinosa, 41, resigned from his position as a community outreach pastor at Antioch Community Church, the Waco Tribune-Herald reports. The massage parlor where Espinosa paid for sex was one of two targeted by undercover McLennan County Sheriff's Office investigators last year, according to an arrest affidavit.
Read the crime and public safety news your neighbors are talking about. Or with:. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Investigators raided the massage parlor in December and discovered a human trafficking ring along with videos of men visiting to pay for sex, the Tribune-Herald reported.
The operator of the massage parlor, year-old Chun Yang Zhang, was arrested Dec. Antioch's own anti-human trafficking ministry , UnBound, assisted the women who were found at the massage parlor in December. The Tribune-Herald spoke with the director of Unbound, Susan Peters, who said the organization and the church were shaken after hearing of Espinosa's arrest.
Peters said the women who were at the massage parlor that Espinosa visited were human trafficking victims who were forced to have sex with clients. This is a criminal activity to harbor human trafficking. The senior pastor of Antioch Community Church, Jimmy Seibert, told the Tribune-Herald that Espinosa had been a pastor there for eight years and that he told his supervisor Dec. A former McLennan County Sheriff's Office deputy, Stephen Johnson, was also arrested Wednesday on a prostitution charge after investigators raided the massage parlor.
Authorities said additional arrests will be made and sexual assault charges are possible based on video footage found at the parlor. Since first starting her career at The Dallas Morning News in , Claire has reported and written on a wide range of topics, covering breaking news, Dallas City Hall, criminal and civil courts and, most recently, food.
