Man to spend decades in prison for raping Cherokee County child

WSBTV.com News Staff
·2 min read
5

The Cherokee County District Attorney’s Office announced a man will spend decades in prison and must register as a sex offender after being found guilty of raping a child, among other crimes.

According to the DA’s office, Juan Nazario Lopez, 53, was previously found guilty of rape, incest, aggravated child molestation, child molestation and enticing a child for indecent purposes.

The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office investigated Lopez in April 2023 after a woman said her niece was being molested by another family member.

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Deputies interviewed multiple family members, as well as the victim and her younger sibling.

“The day the victim in this case had the courage to disclose these crimes to her aunt, she took the first steps in taking back her life and stopping the abuse from continuing,” Assistant District Attorney Meaghan Frankish, of the Special Victims Unit said in a statement. “This victim felt safe enough with her aunt to disclose the abuse she had been suffering for years, even though exposing the truth had a tremendous impact on her family and home life. Children need people in their lives where they can go and feel safe; that is paramount in a child’s disclosure journey.”

In court, Lopez was convicted and had a plea hearing, where prosecutors showed text messages from the victim that they said “proved how the defendant’s abuse significantly impacted her health, which aggravated this defendant’s criminal actions.”

On May 8, Lopez was sentenced to 50 years in prison to be followed by life on probation. He’ll be required to register as a sex offender, follow conditions of probation for sex offenders and banned from contacting the victim in any way.

“This young victim suffered immeasurable harm at the hands of a family member. Her courage in disclosing this abuse helped her to rise above this trauma,” District Attorney Susan K. Treadaway said in a statement.

“Children suffer mental health consequences when they keep dark secrets out of fear of shame or disbelief. We are thankful that this little girl could rely on her aunt to help her when she needed her the most and that a Cherokee County teacher also played a role in supporting her through this trauma.”

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