Pastor Wants to Pause Civil Lawsuit Over Criminal Case
Editor’s Notes: In the past two years there have been a total of six lawsuits against Ignite Life Center (ILC) and the Florida Multicultural District (FMD) of the Assemblies of God filed in Orange County. The first three, all filed by the Horowitz Law Firm, were filed in 2024 and all settled out of trial in the same year. In February 2025, ILC and FMD were hit with another lawsuit by Bagen Law Firm. In July 2025, Horowitz hit ILC and FMD with two more lawsuits. This article is in reference to the Bagen lawsuit, which additionally has Christian Vargas as an individual defendant alongside ILC and FMD.
ORANGE COUNTY. Court documents show that the new criminal case against the head pastor of Gainesville church ILC, Mark Vega, may affect the civil lawsuit and his son, Christian Vargas.
Background:
On July 18, 2023, Vargas was arrested by the Gainesville Police Department (GPD) on charges of one count of lewd or lascivious battery and one count of lewd or lascivious conduct, with police reports stating he raped a 12- to 13-year-old girl when he was 16 and sexually coerced a 14-year-old girl when he was 17–18.
Vargas has been out on bond for over two years with his case still pending.
In February 2025, Vargas was sued for sexual battery, with ILC and FMD being named co-defendants on counts of vicarious liability and negligence. The filed complaint is not publicly available on the Orange County court records website.
In August 2025, Vega was charged via sworn complaint with failing to report a slew of child sexual abuse incidents within ILC, but he hasn’t been arrested, with no warrant issued.
Vargas and Vega both continue to attend ILC amid their criminal and civil cases.
ILC's Motion to Abate
On October 13, 2025, ILC’s lawyer Madeline Villani of the Garrison Yount Forte & Mulcahy Law Firm, filed a motion to abate, i.e. pause the lawsuit arguing that Vega could incriminate himself.
The motion states, “This is a negligence action brought by [the plaintiff] against Defendant Ignite and [FMD], Inc. stemming from alleged abuse perpetrated by church member, Christian Vargas (also a minor at the time of the alleged abuse), on the Defendant’s church property between March and July of 2021. On August 20, 2025, felony charges related to an alleged failure to report suspected child abuse were filed in Alachua County, Florida against Pastor Mark Vega, the president and director of Ignite Life Center, Inc., a Florida corporation. The criminal charges directly relate to the allegations of abuse which for the basis of this lawsuit.”
Citing case law, the motion argues, “The Fifth Amendment privilege against compulsory self-incrimination can be asserted in any proceeding, civil or criminal, administrative or judicial, investigatory or adjudicatory; it protects against any disclosures which the witness reasonably believes might incriminate him in future proceedings.”
The motion cites an Alachua case, stating, “A court should ‘stay a civil proceeding pending resolution of a related criminal prosecution... when ‘special circumstances' so require in the interests of justice,’ United States v. Lot 5. Fox Grove. Alachua County, Fla., 23 F.3d 359, 364 (11th Cir. 1994).”
The motion acknowledges that prosecutors haven’t formally filed charges against Vega, stating, “If a party reasonably apprehends risk of self-incrimination, that party may claim Fifth Amendment privilege even though no criminal charges are pending against the party and even if the risk of prosecution is remote.”
Bagen’s Motion to Compel
The abatement motion hasn’t swayed Bagen firm, as just a couple weeks later, Bagen attorney Christopher Chenevey filed a motion to compel ILC to release discovery, i.e. evidence. The motion demands ILC release any evidence in their possession relating to the lawsuit, such as documents, videos and records of church-related communications.
Court records show Chenevey has been trying to get ILC to release any evidence they have for over two months. There were no dockets filed in the lawsuit between the initial evidence production motion in early August and the abatement motion in mid-October.
The newly filed evidence complement motion is effectively an attempt on Chenevey’s part to force ILC to release evidence because they’re refusing. The document contains copies of email correspondences between Villani and Chenevey.
Prior and Forthcoming Proceedings
ILC and FMD previously attempted to dismiss several counts but failed.
Judge Michael Deen is presiding over the lawsuit and has yet to give an order on the abatement motion and evidence complement motion.
Motions to abate and compel have only been filed in the Bagen lawsuit, with no equivalent motions in the two pending Horowitz lawsuits, court records show.
GnvInfo has a pending public records request from GPD for several incident reports from ILC, for which they are charging $150 and demanding payment next week.
