Last summer, Naasón Joaquín García, the leader of a million-member church called La Luz Del Mundo, was arrested and charged with a series of crimes including child rape and human trafficking.

He was denied bail. There appeared to be video evidence of his crimes.

García pleaded not guilty to everything.

But Tuesday, in a surprise reversal, a California appeals court dismissed all charges against him.

The attorney general’s office said it was reviewing the court’s ruling and did not answer additional questions. García’s attorney, Alan Jackson, said he and his client are “thrilled” by the decision. “In their zeal to secure a conviction at any cost, the Attorney General has sought to strip Mr. Garcia of his freedom without due process by locking him up without bail on the basis of unsubstantiated accusations by unnamed accusers and by denying him his day in court,” Jackson said in a statement.

Why the turnaround? All because of a technicality. The justices said his preliminary hearing was not held in time. Therefore, everything in the complaint had to be dismissed. Part of the reason the hearing kept getting pushed back is because the prosecutors didn’t turn over evidence to García’s defense team. Whether he can still be pursued over these crimes remains to be seen.

It would be tragic if incompetent attorneys botched a case against a religious predator, allowing him to go free.

But there is another way to nab him. Earlier this year, a federal lawsuit was also filed against him by a woman who said García and her father sexually abused her:

… she said García, 50, and his father sexually abused her for 18 years starting when she was 12, manipulating Bible passages to convince her the mistreatment actually was a gift from God.

That lawsuit will still continue.

(Screenshot via YouTube)

