Former Kaneohe minister Manuel “Memo” Taboada was sentenced to up to 10 years prison this morning for sexually molesting an underage female member of his church over a period of years.

Taboada “is a very smooth operator, a scam artist and a sexual predator,” Deputy Prosecutor Thalia Murphy told Circuit Judge Richard Pollock.
When the victim, now 22, told what he had done to her, “the defendant tried to quote scripture to justify what he had done,” Murphy said.
Taboada declined to speak at the sentencing. Defense lawyer Michael Green said that the relationship between Taboada and the victim developed over a number of years and was not always sexual in nature.
The sex assaults “never should have happened,” Green said.
Pollock followed the terms of a plea agreement reached in the case, ordering Taboada to serve as much as 10 years behind bars.
Taboada, 57, “flagrantly took advantage of a position of trust,” Pollock said.
Taboada, a naturalized citizen originally from Peru, came to Hawaii from Oregon with religious followers in 1999 and established a ministry called "Back to the Cross" in Kaneohe.
His victim and her mother were among the church members who followed Taboada here from the Pacific Northwest. He began molesting her when she was 11 or 12 years old, according to court records.