God gets credit

July 3, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Ex-convict becomes executive producer to make a faith-based movie

McClatchy Newspapers

SAN JOSE, Calif.

Galley Molina acknowl- edges that back in mid-1990s he was “way up there” in a major drug-trafficking ring, importing cocaine from Costa Rica to San Jose.

Today, the outgoing 41-year-old ex-convict is a pastor, a music talent and now, the executive producer of a faith-based movie, “I’m in Love With a Church Girl,” being filmed in San Jose. It’s about a former high-level drug trafficker, played by rapper Ja Rule, who has turned his life around with the help of Vanessa, played by former Cheetah Girls singer Adrienne Bailon, closely mirroring Molina’s own story of redemption and religious beliefs.

“This will be the first movie,” Molina said, grinning widely, “where God will get credit as the executive producer.”

God might get the credit. But Molina is doing much of the work.

Recently, he was at tony Santana Row, gently overseeing scenes in a New York Yankees baseball cap, baggy black jeans and a shiny cross circling his neck. He gushed over a new makeup artist; he joked with the actors and stage crew; he stopped an interview promoting his debut film to decide which string of beads the main character should give his girlfriend.

Molina wrote the screenplay from his federal prison cell.

He had three years to pen his story after his drug bust in 1996. He had never studied writing, didn’t even read that much. But he said these personal stories flowed freely from his heart to paper.

The movie is about a character named Miles Montego who has left his drug-dealing days, but is still dogged by a DEA agent (played by Stephen Baldwin) for hanging out with his old friends. The character’s girlfriend is a church girl who insists that she and Miles bring Jesus into their lives.

Molina is proud that he did the casting all himself, and points to Baldwin’s and Bailon’s deep Christian backgrounds, strong acting skills and his ability to afford them as reasons for hiring them. He knew Rule from his music days.

“I’m not trying to glorify or glamorize what I did,” Molina said. “But God gives us these stories for a reason. The prison was my desert. I was focused and I used the time wisely.”

Molina, who met his wife at a San Jose church, said there is a “lot of Jesus” in the movie. Characters quote Scripture.

Though this is Molina’s first film, he has many connections with “industry people” in Los Angeles from his years as a music producer and multiplatinum writer, for such DVD productions as the Latino Comedy Series and the Kings and Queens of Freestyle.

Molina is largely financing the “under $7 million” movie privately. This is important, he said, because it means he doesn’t have to water down the word of God, one reason he shied away from taking the script straight to Hollywood.

“But just because it’s faith-based doesn’t mean it has to be corny,” Molina said. “This is written grammatically unorthodox to keep it real. I’m trying to bring this type of movie to the next level.”

Going low budget, also means that Molina chose natural — and mostly free — settings in San Jose, such as the Fairmont Hotel, the Church on the Hill on Sands Drive and the shops of Santana Row, instead of building costly sets. The Internal Revenue Service in Oakland let the actors borrow jackets. San Jose police lent patrol cars. A city spokeswoman said there are “one or fewer” movies in San Jose filmed a year.

“The city of San Jose,” Molina said, “has really rolled out the red carpet for us.”

Molina knows San Jose well.

He grew up in an upper-middle class family there and attended Mount Pleasant High School. He sings and plays saxophone, and early on, began writing songs and producing music. And although he doesn’t necessarily offer up too much of his criminal past, he doesn’t hide from it, either.

He began importing cocaine in the 1980s while he was a DJ, and said had a “long run of it” until his federal indictment in 1996. He convinced his parents, for a while, about his healthy cash flow citing his successful music ventures. But his crew was busted in an East San Jose industrial park while unloading 98 pounds of cocaine stuffed into the hollowed legs of furniture flown in from Costa Rica.

Out on bail for the next six years, Molina’s activism at church intensified. He worshipped on stage. He sang. He gave sermons. It was there that he met fellow churchgoer and retired San Jose police Sgt. Greg Trapp, who now works as security for Molina’s company, Reverence Gospel Media.

“He is so charismatic,” Trapp said. “And talented. I know Galley’s heart now. We all do stupid things. Now, his goals have changed.”

When Molina isn’t producing music videos or movies, he’s a dad to a 5-year-old son and a 17-year-old daughter studying entertainment law.

He’s also the youth pastor and worship leader at Evergreen Valley Church in South San Jose.

“We work on the weekends,” said Sheryl Main, the film’s publicist. “But Galley has to be at church on Sundays at 7 a.m. He hasn’t missed a service.”

Senior pastor Tim Wood, who plays himself in the movie, welcomed Molina with open arms to his flock.

“When he went to prison and came back, he was a different person,” Woods said.

Molina doesn’t want to give away too many details away about the end of the film, which he hopes will come out this Christmas. But the main character becomes a pastor, his old posse sitting in the front pew.

“God tore off roofs for me,” Molina said. “Now, he’s saying, ‘Do something for me.’”