SUNRISE, Fla. – Police fear that there may be more victims of a voodoo priest from Sunrise who is accused of raping an underage girl and manipulating and threatening several other women with whom he had sexual relationships.
Police said the rape, which involved an 11-year-old girl, happened about five years ago.
According to authorities, Brogenet Cinor, 48, took the girl to a tiki hut-like structure in his back yard and raped her. At the time, the victim's mother confronted Cinor, but he said it was part of a cleansing and threatened to put a curse on her and her family if she spoke up, police said.
Years later, the family finally stepped forward and told police what happened.
"Coercion comes in many different forms, and I'm not familiar with any other cases like this one," said Cindi McCue of the Sunrise Police Department.
The young girl met with Cinor at his Sunrise home in 2009, because he claimed she needed to be cleansed of evil spirits.
According to an arrest affidavit, Cinor took the victim to the shed, told her to pull down her pants and then raped her.
Police said the victim claimed that she told Cinor that it hurt while he was having sex with her, "but he restrained her arms and would not allow her to get up."
"The family, the mother and this child fully well believe in the power of voodoo, and she believed that she could be harmed or die as a result of not going forth with the cleansing," said McCue.
Local 10 News visited Cinor's home, but there was no answer at the door. Someone in the back yard threw a rock at the news crew, and a woman who emerged from the home said, "I know nothing."
Cinor's neighbor, Garfield Spence, said he heard what sounded like voodoo rituals going on in the back yard, but never thought much of it.
"It was just chanting, like whatever chants they did, and I would hear popping things, like those little white things that you throw on the ground and pop. It sounded like that, but I let it go," Spence said.
Police said two women had similar experiences with Cinor, claiming he told them that they needed to have sex with him to be cleansed. Police are asking anyone who believes that they were victimized by Cinor to call authorities.
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