Pastor Isaac Noriega of Golden Dawn Tabernacle is charged with two criminal counts under A.R.S. 13-3620(A) for failing to report suspected child sexual abuse. These charges include one Class 6 felony and one Class 1 misdemeanor. Arizona law requires clergy and institutional leaders to report suspected abuse immediately to authorities. Noriega did not report, and is now facing criminal prosecution.
After his initial appearance in court on July 31st, 2025, Noriega successfully avoided returning to the courtroom by securing a waiver of appearance from Judge Fell. His attorney, Douglas Taylor, has repeatedly filed sealed motions and sought private bench discussions, preventing the congregation and the public from understanding what is happening behind the scenes.
At the most recent hearing on November 14, 2025, Noriega’s defense filed a motion for an Arizona Rule 11 competency evaluation hearing, claiming Noriega has dementia. This major shift in legal strategy has temporarily placed the case under the control of a new judge Mark Hotchkiss, who oversees Arizona Rule 11 competency evaluations. Additionally, the defense requested that the motion for Rule 11 be sealed, which was granted by Judge Fell.
Case Update: State of Arizona v. Isaac Noriega
- Case Number: CR20252710 (Pima County Superior Court)
- Judge: Howard Fell
- Prosecutor: Brad Roach
- Defense Counsel: Douglas Taylor
- Most Recent Hearing: Friday, November 14, 2025 – 9:00 AM
- Next Scheduled Hearing: Monday, November 24, 2025 – 9:00 AM, Courtroom 386 (For Rule 11 Competency Evaluation)
- Judge for Rule 11 Evaluation: Mark Hotchkiss
Noriega Must Appear In Person on November 24
Judge Hotchkiss’ chambers have officially confirmed that Noriega’s current waiver of appearance applies only to Judge Fell’s courtroom and does not excuse him from appearing in this Rule 11 proceeding.
Noriega is required to appear in court on: Monday, November 24, 2025 at 9:00 AM in Courtroom 386 at Pima County Superior Court.
This will be Noriega’s first public appearance since his initial hearing. He has avoided every hearing in between.
What Arizona Rule 11 Actually Is
Arizona Rule of Criminal Procedure 11 governs the process for determining whether a defendant is mentally competent to stand trial. Competency is not about mental illness in general. It has two specific legal requirements:
- The defendant must understand the nature of the court proceedings, and
- The defendant must be able to assist their attorney in their defense.
A Rule 11 process is typically initiated when:
• The defense claims a mental condition like dementia, brain injury, or severe psychiatric impairment.
• The court has reason to question the defendant’s ability to comprehend the proceedings.
What happens when Rule 11 is invoked?
• The case is transferred to a judge who specializes in Rule 11 matters.
• The defendant may be ordered to undergo psychological or neurological evaluations.
• The court may appoint one or more mental health experts to assess competency.
• Hearings are held to determine if the defendant can proceed to trial.
Rule 11 can result in two major outcomes:
Competent to Stand Trial:
The case goes back to the original judge and proceeds toward trial.
Not Competent to Stand Trial:
The defendant may be sent to treatment or supervision until competency is restored.
This can delay a case for months or even years.
Why This Hearing Matters
Noriega presents himself to his congregation as fully capable: preaching long sermons, counseling families, leading church business, and maintaining full authority. Yet in court, his defense claims he has dementia and cannot stand trial. The contradiction is enormous and raises critical questions.
• If he has dementia, why has he not told the congregation?
• Why is he still functioning as senior pastor?
• If he does not have dementia, why is he using it in court to avoid prosecution?
• Is Rule 11 being used as a tool to escape accountability for failing to report child sexual abuse?
For victims, this hearing determines whether accountability will finally move forward.
For families, it reveals whether church leadership protected their children as required by law.
For current congregants, it exposes serious discrepancies between what they are being told and what is happening in court.
For former members, it validates long-standing concerns about secrecy, control, and a lack of transparency within the church.
Why a Pastor With Dementia Must Step Down
If Noriega truly has dementia, then he cannot continue serving as senior pastor. Dementia directly impacts the essential responsibilities of pastoral leadership, including judgment, communication, counseling, and decision-making.
A pastor with dementia should step down for several reasons:
1. Inability to perform duties.
Dementia affects memory, judgment, and the ability to communicate clearly. Pastors must preach, teach, counsel, oversee church operations, and handle sensitive spiritual and personal matters. Dementia makes these responsibilities unsafe and unreliable.
2. Impact on the congregation.
The congregation deserves a leader who is fully capable of guiding them, protecting them, and responding to their needs. Managing a deteriorating senior leader places an unfair emotional and organizational burden on a church.
3. Personal well-being.
Pastoral leadership is highly demanding. A pastor with dementia should be encouraged to focus on their health, their family, and appropriate care rather than carrying the stress of leadership.
Stepping down does not mean removing the pastor from the life of the church. A person with dementia can still contribute meaningfully through roles like prayer, writing, mentoring, or advice when appropriate. But they cannot remain in senior leadership.
If Noriega truly has dementia, he should step down immediately. If he does not have dementia, then the congregation should question why he is claiming it in court.
A Pastor On Sunday, A Dementia Claim On Monday
The striking reality is this: Pastor Isaac Noriega will stand in the pulpit on Sunday, preaching for two lengthy services with full authority, and then walk into court on Monday claiming dementia to avoid trial. No matter how you examine this contradiction, the pattern is unmistakable. This is about avoiding accountability while holding tightly to power. A man cannot be spiritually capable for a congregation one day and legally incompetent before a judge the next. The contradiction speaks for itself, and the congregation deserves to confront the truth behind it.
The Rule 11 Competency Evaluation hearing is open to the public, and will take place Monday, November 24, 2025 at 9:00 AM in Courtroom 386 at Pima County Superior Court.
The outcome of this hearing will have major implications: either the case moves toward trial or becomes delayed by a competency process. The stakes are high for victims, for the congregation, and for the broader community.
More updates will follow after the hearing.
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What is happening with Isaac Noriega in Arizona is not an isolated case, nor an exception, nor a local problem. It reflects a pattern seen in many Message churches around the world, where pastors have ruled their congregations for 30, 40, or even 50 years with absolute authority.
For decades, these leaders did more than preach: they defined reality.
They decided what was “truth,” what was “of God,” what was “of the devil,” and dictated what members were supposed to believe, feel, and think. In many of these churches, the pastor was not viewed as a simple spiritual teacher, but as the very voice of God for the people.
But this phenomenon does not survive by the leader’s power alone.
It survives because there is a psychological and emotional pact between pastor and congregation.
The leader says:
“I am your access to revelation. Without me, you cannot reach God.”
And the congregation replies:
“Make me feel special chosen, superior and I will give you absolute obedience.”
This mutual complicity has been reinforced for decades.
Not out of malice, but out of human need:
the need for certainty, identity, belonging, and a sense of spiritual superiority.
In this system, the true “divinity” that was worshipped was not truth, humility, or justice.
It was Advantage.
The advantage of feeling “better than the rest,”
of having revelation others don’t,
of believing God is with “us” in a unique way.
When Advantage becomes the god of a community, then:
This is why aging leaders, men who have exercised unchecked power for decades, cannot step back, cannot be accountable, and cannot imagine life without the pulpit. Their identity is so fused with their role that separating them from leadership is almost impossible.
The Noriega case reveals what many churches are already experiencing:
When a pastor who has dominated everything for decades grows old, the entire system becomes trapped between the leader’s decline and the congregation’s inability to face the truth.
The consequences around the world look the same:
What is happening now in Arizona is pointing to a global reality:
The era of pastor-gods is coming to an end.
And this process will be painful for many churches, because for decades a culture was built where the leader is untouchable and the membership emotionally depends on him.
But it can also be a necessary opportunity.
A chance to recover:
The road ahead will not be easy.
But what is collapsing now is not faith.
What is collapsing is the illusion of advantage that replaced truth.
Many churches will face this same process.
And perhaps this time, with open eyes, they may finally see what was forbidden to see for decades.
Para la mayoria de los que salen de Alli está muy clara la situacion, mental, moral, espiritual de esa iglesia.
Lo triste, que la mayoria de la congregacion de GDT no sabe nada de los que está pasando, ya que les proíven todo contacto con el exterior,
El abuso contínua la oprecion a incrementado, y hay personas fatuas que se dicen ser felises porque a escondidas ” gozan de actividades mundanas” sin dejar la congregacion, gente atrapada en el imbo, completamente deprimidas y reprimidas de una vida feliz y libre.
Otros especialmente los hombres, ( la mayoria), estan completamente dominados o por sus esposas o.por el pastor, alli no hay tal.cosa como varon con fuerza, determinacion y desicion para alguna desicion, las mujeres han tomando el dominio ya que son las que
anciosamente se conectan con Issac para agradarlo.
Es patetico, horrososo, triste, estan atrapados con cadenas, y lo niegan o asi voluntariamente quieren estar por temor, es de compacion como viven, fingen felisidad, lo peor somenten a la juventud y a los niños a estas hipocrecias y doble moral …
los miras en las calles o en las tiendas y estan completamente oprimidos.
Sus rostros grises y llenos de odio .
Enjoy your mentally ill pastor.
😄
I always remember the time Isaac was preaching on an Old Testament book and he titled the sermon “HIS-story”. Like a play on the word history but he thought it was a totally novel take on the word history as if no one had ever thought of that before in reference to God as the Creator. I remember he repeated the title several times at the beginning of the service and then several times throughout, really emphasizing the “HIS-story”. It makes me chuckle now every once in a while. Not really a criticism of him I guess , just a thought, he was really proud of that.
Isaac is the furthest thing that Paul stood for and was persecuted for. The Apostles included. They preached against everything Isaac has created. The Pharisees hierarchy and its rituals. Making the temple holy ground and a place where God dwelt. God detested the entire spirituality of kingdoms built by hands. I remember how spiritual building the big Golden Dawn sanctuary was in Isaac’s eyes the whole time”Grace” tape building named after his deceased daughter.
How spiritual we felt about the swords on the newer sanctuary the Mount Sunset wall etc. To be a member ( “we have no members”) you feel so Holy and special to be part of the GoldenDawn ministry.
It’s all obedience based to a man with everchanging rules. One thing stays the same ISAAC call all the shots. For him to now play the role of an ol senile man is ridiculous! We and you all know a fly doesn’t land in the wall without him knowing..
He even knows about your Thursday to Saturday afternoon excursions to Phx … because he gets that in his interviews with your kids..He’s playing senile because the government is stepping in to protect the kids from rape and molestation. Something he tried to control by “disciplining” the rapist himself. Those are the words he told the reporter. And thank God the authorities got involved because the parents didn’t because they listen to Isaac who speaks for God.
Paul was persecuted for helping destroy the very thing Isaac created for you GD members..hierchy and a man who speaks for God!