I first met Daniel Gutierrez at a luncheon to raise funds for the private Christian school that our children attended in Pittsburg, California. I had encountered him at the Employment Development Department office where he worked on a prior occasion, but it was over a pencil he furnished to me to fill out some forms. The pencil had a Christian message on it, which he pointed out, but we never exchanged names. At this luncheon, however, I met him and his wife, Clarisse, along with a couple of their children. Daniel and I had an immediate affinity because we were both of a faith walk mindset, which meant that our Christian experience is one of a special personal call and election by the living Christ, whereas the majority of the "Christians" around us kept Christ safely in a theological box ( or still in the Tomb with the stone securely in place) where He couldn't disturb their love of the world.
1 John 2
15Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
At our first one-on-one meeting, he shared with me how God spoke to him through the scriptures, especially the book of Daniel. He also related how, at a "Temptations" concert at the Concord Pavilion, he was praying to the Lord to help him with his temptations, because there were many attractive women and he was, not surprisingly, struggling with lust. The next thing he knew, he was invited onstage to sing "My Girl" with the Motown legends. Apparently, he stole the show, because he showed me the newspaper article with his picture and a few details. He did not share this unexpected eventuality with pride, but rather as an experience the Lord had blessed him with, and as an encouragement to the faith of others.
On another occasion, he invited me, my son and stepson on a ride in his boat. We left the boat launch and took a short cruise around the California Delta near the Pittsburg and Antioch waterfronts. The sun was lowering to set and everything was tinged with a rich golden luster. What made it special to me was that his kindness was motivated by Christian hospitality and fellowship which meant it was freely given and freely to be received. I had little money and fewer friends, so I wasn't able to provide much in the way of entertainment for the boys. Such kindnesses are hardly noticed by the world, but in Heaven's ledgers, they are engraved in stone:
Mark 9
41For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.
On another occasion, his family and other relatives were having a celebration of some sort, and my wife and children accompanied me to it at their home. There was a pinata in the garage, and we all enjoyed a pleasant, if somewhat raucous, afternoon together. Not long after that, my marriage blew apart, and we drifted in different directions. I ran into him at a department store after my wife and I separated, and through him, I began attending Harvest Church, which met on Sundays at a dome-shaped theater in a Pleasant Hill, California shopping center. God's hand was in it, and He let me know it because the number 777 was on the digital display provided to alert parents that they were needed in the nursery. 777 is a token that God has established between me and Him to affirm that He walks with me. I never saw that number on the digital display at any time after the first time I attended. I saw and sat near Daniel and Clarisse on a couple of occasions afterwards, but I was out of general circulation due to the intensity of the breakup of my marriage.
The last time I saw Daniel and Clarisse, it was again a "chance" meeting at a retail clothing outlet sometime around 1994. Daniel informed me that he was facing charges of child molestation, of which he was not guilty, but that the youth in question was someone he had tried to "help". I told him point blank that if he was guilty, he must confess it, regardless of the consequences, because the Lord absolutely demands it. He was not happy with me, and insisted that he wasn't guilty, and resented me for mistrusting him. I knew, however, that whether he was guilty or not, a sex offender will naturally deny his guilt, because the social deterrent to admission is absolute. God, however, is not concerned in the slightest about social priorities, and demands that we come clean if we are to be reconciled to Him.
I hold this position because I spent the years between the ages of eleven and twenty-six beset by incestuous and sexually degenerate compulsions which began to destroy me first through a relationship with a much younger stepsister, and ultimately led to my fondling a stepdaughter (from my first marriage) in her bed at night. All my hopes for reform, as I fled from one failure to another, were dashed by my inability to master my compulsions, until I came to the place where I gave up on myself, and turned myself over to God and man by open confession of my sin.
Proverbs 28
13He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
1 John 1
6If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Once I surrendered myself in that area to the Lord, I was free from it, and have been living in victory ever since. That was the cleansing part. At the time I confessed, in 1987, my ex-wife was supportive, and although child protective services became involved and we were required to undergo counseling and a temporary breakup of the family, I was not charged with any crime. That was the mercy part.
Getting back to 1994, I wound up in jail due to the fact that I disobeyed a court order that my ex-wife obtained by making misleading and outright false statements about me, including the fact that I had molested her daughter, but excluding the fact that it had occurred seven years prior, that the authorities had been involved and were satisfied, that I had not repeated the offense, that she felt comfortable letting me care for our infant daughter and that she described me in the following terms at Christmas of 1992:
One of my cellmates in County Jail hailed from Pittsburg, and when I mentioned that I knew Daniel Gutierrez from there, he responded that he was a child molester. I replied that I didn't know about that for sure, and that was the last we spoke of him.
I wound up being convicted on a felony charge of Penal Code Section 71: Threat or injury to a public official. The fact is, the district attorney's office came after me for violating the aforementioned restraining order, I would not bow to their humanist terrorism, my humanist public defender was incompetent to participate in my defense, I rejected a slap on the wrist misdemeanor plea bargain and, after my conviction, felony probation, and got myself the midterm sentence of two years in state prison. It wasn't a prosecution, it was malicious persecution. I consider it one of my finest moments as a genuine believer in Christ. The presiding judge asked why I rejected the plea bargain. My attorney said because I wasn't guilty. True, but that's not the only reason:
Hebrews 11
32And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:
33Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions.
34Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
35Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:
1 John 2
15Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
At our first one-on-one meeting, he shared with me how God spoke to him through the scriptures, especially the book of Daniel. He also related how, at a "Temptations" concert at the Concord Pavilion, he was praying to the Lord to help him with his temptations, because there were many attractive women and he was, not surprisingly, struggling with lust. The next thing he knew, he was invited onstage to sing "My Girl" with the Motown legends. Apparently, he stole the show, because he showed me the newspaper article with his picture and a few details. He did not share this unexpected eventuality with pride, but rather as an experience the Lord had blessed him with, and as an encouragement to the faith of others.
On another occasion, he invited me, my son and stepson on a ride in his boat. We left the boat launch and took a short cruise around the California Delta near the Pittsburg and Antioch waterfronts. The sun was lowering to set and everything was tinged with a rich golden luster. What made it special to me was that his kindness was motivated by Christian hospitality and fellowship which meant it was freely given and freely to be received. I had little money and fewer friends, so I wasn't able to provide much in the way of entertainment for the boys. Such kindnesses are hardly noticed by the world, but in Heaven's ledgers, they are engraved in stone:
Mark 9
41For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.
On another occasion, his family and other relatives were having a celebration of some sort, and my wife and children accompanied me to it at their home. There was a pinata in the garage, and we all enjoyed a pleasant, if somewhat raucous, afternoon together. Not long after that, my marriage blew apart, and we drifted in different directions. I ran into him at a department store after my wife and I separated, and through him, I began attending Harvest Church, which met on Sundays at a dome-shaped theater in a Pleasant Hill, California shopping center. God's hand was in it, and He let me know it because the number 777 was on the digital display provided to alert parents that they were needed in the nursery. 777 is a token that God has established between me and Him to affirm that He walks with me. I never saw that number on the digital display at any time after the first time I attended. I saw and sat near Daniel and Clarisse on a couple of occasions afterwards, but I was out of general circulation due to the intensity of the breakup of my marriage.
The last time I saw Daniel and Clarisse, it was again a "chance" meeting at a retail clothing outlet sometime around 1994. Daniel informed me that he was facing charges of child molestation, of which he was not guilty, but that the youth in question was someone he had tried to "help". I told him point blank that if he was guilty, he must confess it, regardless of the consequences, because the Lord absolutely demands it. He was not happy with me, and insisted that he wasn't guilty, and resented me for mistrusting him. I knew, however, that whether he was guilty or not, a sex offender will naturally deny his guilt, because the social deterrent to admission is absolute. God, however, is not concerned in the slightest about social priorities, and demands that we come clean if we are to be reconciled to Him.
I hold this position because I spent the years between the ages of eleven and twenty-six beset by incestuous and sexually degenerate compulsions which began to destroy me first through a relationship with a much younger stepsister, and ultimately led to my fondling a stepdaughter (from my first marriage) in her bed at night. All my hopes for reform, as I fled from one failure to another, were dashed by my inability to master my compulsions, until I came to the place where I gave up on myself, and turned myself over to God and man by open confession of my sin.
Proverbs 28
13He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
1 John 1
6If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Once I surrendered myself in that area to the Lord, I was free from it, and have been living in victory ever since. That was the cleansing part. At the time I confessed, in 1987, my ex-wife was supportive, and although child protective services became involved and we were required to undergo counseling and a temporary breakup of the family, I was not charged with any crime. That was the mercy part.
Getting back to 1994, I wound up in jail due to the fact that I disobeyed a court order that my ex-wife obtained by making misleading and outright false statements about me, including the fact that I had molested her daughter, but excluding the fact that it had occurred seven years prior, that the authorities had been involved and were satisfied, that I had not repeated the offense, that she felt comfortable letting me care for our infant daughter and that she described me in the following terms at Christmas of 1992:
One of my cellmates in County Jail hailed from Pittsburg, and when I mentioned that I knew Daniel Gutierrez from there, he responded that he was a child molester. I replied that I didn't know about that for sure, and that was the last we spoke of him.
I wound up being convicted on a felony charge of Penal Code Section 71: Threat or injury to a public official. The fact is, the district attorney's office came after me for violating the aforementioned restraining order, I would not bow to their humanist terrorism, my humanist public defender was incompetent to participate in my defense, I rejected a slap on the wrist misdemeanor plea bargain and, after my conviction, felony probation, and got myself the midterm sentence of two years in state prison. It wasn't a prosecution, it was malicious persecution. I consider it one of my finest moments as a genuine believer in Christ. The presiding judge asked why I rejected the plea bargain. My attorney said because I wasn't guilty. True, but that's not the only reason:
Hebrews 11
32And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:
33Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions.
34Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
35Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:
37They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;
38(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
The judge added insult to injury by ordering a compulsory psychiatric evaluation, maliciously surmising that I must be imbalanced because I wouldn't play by their twisted rules.
I continued to write letters to my ex-wife, and on two occasions, once in county jail and the second time in state prison, I was personally served with documents containing references to the sexual abuse of my stepdaughter. If this information fell into the hands of my fellow inmates, I would be in immediate and mortal peril. Well, I had a friend, my former bunkmate in the dorm at California's Correctional Medical Facility in Vacaville, who was well connected to a white supremacist prison gang and had sided with me against some aggressive black inmates in the dorm. I was concerned that information about me might be leaked to the prison population through administrative channels, so I chose to inform him myself. I was also motivated to confess my sin in those environs because sex offenders face prison time and I would be hypocritical to insist on open confession from the safety of more congenial society. I knew it was the will of God in my spirit. I was also sick and tired of my ex-wife beating me over the head with it, and would just as soon die in prison as to live under her shadow. I also remembered how I had counseled Daniel Gutierrez to confess if he was guilty.
My inmate friend assured me that it would remain confidential, but when I returned to my new, less restricted dormitory a couple of days later, another inmate was conferring with my new bunkmate about it, and told me that my "friend" said I was "some kind of child molester". I told them how years before, I had had a problem, and that my ex-wife had dredged it up to use against me in our separation and divorce. They withdrew to confer about how best to approach rushing me en masse to do me great bodily harm, but another inmate, who was from the same county as me, came to warn me that they were preparing to attack me because I admitted being a child molester. I told him it was true, but if they were willing to hold off, I would enter protective custody while they went to the evening meal. They did, and I spent the rest of my sentence in a protected, highly controlled wing of the facility.
That was almost ten years ago. My friend, Daniel Gutierrez, made the papers again.
News in brief from the San Francisco Bay area
The Associated Press
Monday, June 14, 2004
PITTSBURG, Calif. (AP) -- Police have arrested a man who they suspect took part in a recent shooting outside the Pittsburg/Bay Point BART station in which a 51-year-old man was killed.
Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Chief Gary Gee declined to identify the a 24-year-old Pittsburg resident who was arrested, but said he turned himself in Saturday -- hours after the shooting -- at the Pittsburg Police Department, where he is being held.
The victim was identified Sunday as Daniel Mario Gutierrez, of Pittsburg, who in March retired from the state Employment Development Department, said Gutierrez's sister-in-law, Michelle Zamora of Oakley.
According to witnesses, Gutierrez was shot while he was in the back seat of a Pontiac Parisienne that had stopped along the station's access road. A BART user who ran into the station to alert a station agent said he saw three men in their late teens run away from the car, police said.
The man was not the shooter, but he may have been at the scene, investigators said. They said they are looking for three other men and are still trying to figure out why Gutierrez was shot.
I don't know for sure, but I think I might have some idea why he was shot. I contacted the investigating officer with such information as I could furnish, but have not been informed as to the outcome. Vaya con Dios, amigo. I pray that you have not died in vain. I pray also that I do not live in vain. In Jesus' name, amen.
The motive may have been vigilantism because I knew a Daniel Gutierrez who confided to me that he was accused by a minor of molestation. I haven't seen or heard from him since then (about 1994- ten years ago.) I was incarcerated on an unrelated charge a few months later, and when I mentioned his name to my cellmate in Contra Costa County Jail who was from Pittsburg, he knew him and had heard that he was mixed up in a child molestation problem.
The article mentions that one of the suspects has a "Pitt" tattoo, indicating gang affiliation. As you probably know, gang culture and prison culture are almost identical, and child molesters are "dead men walking" in prison culture.
By the way, I advised the Daniel Gutierrez I knew to confess if he had in fact molested the boy.It's the only way to be free. He and I had fellowshipped as Christians. How tragic if he was still in denial when he died. Its also a vile evil that our society provides no incentive whatsoever for child molesters to come clean. Carey Verse is a perfect example of how a person with that in his background will never have a chance at a normal life because self-appointed "defenders of the public good" hound them to their graves or back to prison. I derive a great deal of comfort in the knowledge that my Lord and Savior takes a very dim view of such hypocrites.
Matthew 25
41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
Vaya con Dios, Amigo.
Mr. Jones, I am in receipt of your e-mail to Mr. Johnson regarding Daniel Gutierrez. I would like for you to call me so we may discuss the merits of your e-mail and to obtain additional information. You can reach me at xxxxxxxxxx.
Thank you for your assistance regarding this matter.
Detective Shabazz
BART Police Department
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