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Joel Osteen’s Church Is Being Sued for $10 Million By Worker Accused of Molestation

Joel Osteen may be starting a reality show and making news with interviews with Oprah but he has to deal with the molestation accusations they brought against a former volunteer.

In 2010,  there was a volunteer at Pastor Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church who was accused of sexual molestation of a special needs child. He is now suing the megachurch for $10 million. The suit alleges the church was negligent and he claims the accusations ruined his reputation.

Daniel Alvaro Guzman, now 26, of sexually molesting an 8-year-old autistic boy during children’s ministry at Lakewood Church.

At the time of the charge, prosecutor Tina Ansari told ABC News 13 that one of two other chaperones allegedly “observed [Guzman] picking up an eight-year-old boy and touching him on his genital area.”

Guzman was arrested and charged nearly a year later, in May 2011, with one count of indecency with a child and released on $10,000 bail. Guzman was cleared of the charges in July 2011, when a Harris County grand jury declined to indict him.

Guzman is now suing the megachurch, led by televangelist Osteen, for not properly investigating or responding to the molestation allegations.