Brentwood pastor sentenced to 17-plus years for sexually exploiting children

A Brentwood pastor was sentenced Tuesday to 17 1/2 years in federal prison after admitting he sexually exploited multiple children — coercing them online into producing explicit material and raping a minor at a Long Island park, prosecutors said.

Jose Saez Jr., 30, who had been a pastor at Iglesia Cristiana Alumbrando El Camino church in Brentwood, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Joan Azrack in Central Islip. Saez pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of a child in March 2025.

Federal prosecutors said Saez used an encrypted messaging app to engage in sexually explicit chats with minors and with an undercover law enforcement officer. During online exchanges in August 2023, Saez told the undercover officer he had sexually abused an infant, that children between the ages of 11 and 15 were his preferred victims, and that he found younger victims at church.

FBI agents executing a court-authorized search recovered numerous images and videos of child sexual abuse material in Saez’s possession, some of which he had solicited directly from minors, authorities said.

In May 2023, Saez also raped a minor he directed to meet him in a public restroom in Mount Sinai, prosecutors said.

“As a pastor, the defendant occupied a role that carries with it a profound responsibility to protect and guide others, particularly the most vulnerable,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said in a statement. “Instead, he used that position to harm children.”

FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Barnacle Jr. said Saez “abused his position as a pastor by coercing innocent children” and called the harm he inflicted “indefensible.”

Nocella credited the FBI’s Long Island Child Exploitation Task Force and Suffolk Police for the investigation that led to Saez’s arrest and conviction.

Anyone with information about sexual exploitation by Saez is asked to contact the FBI at tips.fbi.gov or 212.384.1000.