Former Brentwood pastor sentenced to more than 17 years for abuse

A former Brentwood pastor who used his position at a local church to exploit children was sentenced to 210 months, or 17 1/2 years, in federal court in Central Islip. Jose Saez Jr., who served at Iglesia Cristiana Alumbrando El Camino on Second Avenue in Brentwood, abused minors both online and in person, prosecutors said.

U.S. District Judge Joan M. Azrack imposed the sentence after Saez pleaded guilty on March 11, 2025, to sexual exploitation of a child. At the plea stage, prosecutors said he faced a minimum of 15 years and as much as 30 years in prison.

The case cuts deeper than a prison term because it involved a trusted religious leader inside a Suffolk County neighborhood church. Federal prosecutors said Saez communicated with minor victims over the internet and coerced them into creating and sending child sexual abuse material. They said he also lured one minor to Heritage Park in Mount Sinai in 2023, where he raped the victim in a bathroom stall.

Saez was arrested on Sept. 28, 2023, after an online tip to the FBI’s Long Island Child Exploitation Task Force. Federal charges referenced sexual exploitation of children, coercion and enticement of children, distribution of child pornography and possession of child pornography. Investigators recovered numerous images and videos of child sexual abuse material from his devices and during a home search, deepening the case against him.

News reports also identified Saez as a father of three. News 12 Long Island reported that the FBI said 15 videos of child pornography were found on his cellphone and that one victim was a 16-year-old boy.

The sentencing leaves Brentwood with a painful accounting that extends beyond one defendant. The abuse of a pastor’s authority inside Iglesia Cristiana Alumbrando El Camino raises stark questions about how the conduct went undetected and what safeguards failed before the case reached federal court. For families in Brentwood and across Suffolk County, the punishment closes the criminal case but not the broader reckoning over trust, oversight and child protection.