WASHINGTON (AP) - A Las Vegas man has been charged in Maryland with molesting multiple boys in the 1980s while assisting with youth ministries at a church.

Continue reading

Police say Nathaniel Morales committed the sex acts between 1985 and 1990.

Authorities say Nathaniel Morales was a member during those years of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, which is named in a lawsuit alleging a cover-up of sex abuse allegations.

Morales faces a pretrial hearing Friday in Montgomery County.

Morales's lawyer hasn't returned phone messages. A phone listing for Morales couldn't immediately be found.

A spokesman for the church wouldn't discuss the case, but referred to an earlier statement in which the church said it was "sickened" by the thought of such abuse but lacked all the facts.