FL: Florida pastor cleared of child molestation charges says he forgives accusers

R H

Source: roysreport.com 8/10/26

A Florida pastor accused in April of molesting four girls has been cleared of the criminal charges and says he forgives those he believes instigated the investigation that led to his arrest.

Angelo Musicaro, 56, founding pastor of Worship-Life Church in New Port Richey, spent 10 days in custody before church members raised money for his $600,000 bond. The Florida state attorney’s office has now dropped all four felony charges.

State Attorney Bruce Bartlett said that after testimony was given under oath, the facts did not warrant prosecution, according to WFLA-TV Channel 8, an NBC affiliate in Tampa.

Musicaro, a former U.S. Marine, Pasco County sheriff’s deputy and school resource officer, had maintained his innocence.

“This whole situation was not just four false allegations; it was four life sentences. These people want to see me under the jail,” Musicaro told the television station.

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5 Comments

“While false allegations are rare, they do happen.” is one comment that made me scratch my head.

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Out for blood, a culture of viciousness and tyranny. Forgive them? They should be in prison.

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Guess New Port City PD didn’t do enough detective work. Forgive them, but also use the law to uphold justice of the local government for wrongful arrest. If the pastor wants to ensure justice for all, then he has to sue the PD so that it can no longer recreate another wrongful arrest. If the local PD made a mistake with him, then imagine it probably could have done it for many other innocent people.

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I can’t even wrap my head around how flimsy the accusations must have been for the state (especially Florida) to drop them. The standard of evidence is in child sex cases is ridiculously low – essentially a bare accusation is evidence enough. It doesn’t even have to make sense.

I don’t think he was wrong to forgive his accusers, but I do think he should have waited to do so until some kind of penalty was given. I don’t buy the reasoning that punishing false accusers somehow discourages genuine ones from reporting. But even if it is true, false accusations should warrant some kind of penalty given the ramifications.

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