David Clohessy, SNAP National Director
Cardinals in LA & Mexico Moved Serial Predator Internationally, It Says First Time Ever That Mexican Cardinal Is Sued In The US For Abuse Cover Up
Law Enforcement Says Mahony ‘Stonewalled & Facilitated Molester’s Flight”
Abusive Priest Was Kept in Active Ministry Even After Criminal Conviction
He Is Accused of Assaulting Dozens of Kids Here & In Mexico Yet Still Walks Free
WHAT
At a sidewalk conference, a young Mexican man who was raped by a convicted abusive former LA priest will speak publicly and file an unprecedented conspiracy lawsuit against top Catholic officials in two countries. It’s the first time a Mexican cardinal has been sued in the US for abuse cover ups. The cleric is still free, despite allegedly assaulting 26 California kids (according to police) and 60 Mexican kids (according to a church official).
WHEN
TODAY, Tuesday, Sept 19, 11:00 a.m.
WHO
A 25 year old Mexican sex abuse victim, his attorneys, and several clergy molestation victims who belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including the group’s national director from Missouri
On the steps outside the LA County Courthouse, 111 Hill Street, in downtown Los Angeles
WHY
After reportedly sexually assaulting a fellow seminarian in the late 1960s and being brutally attacked in a separate unsolved crime in the late 1980s (both incidents in Mexico), Fr. Nicholas Aguilar Rivera was sent to work in Los Angeles. His Mexican bishop says he notified LA Catholic officials in writing of Aguilar’s “homosexual problem,” but Cardinal Roger Mahony claims he never got the letter.
In 1987, Aguilar worked at two LA parishes: Our Lady of Guadelupe and St. Agatha’s (2610 S. Mansfield Ave., 323 935 8127). Police report that he assaulted at least 26 kids in nine months. When Bishop Thomas Curry told Aguilar that police knew of his crimes, Curry kept quiet and “facilitated (Aguilar’s) flight” back to Mexico, according to an LA prosecutor.
The victim bringing this lawsuit is speaking out in the US for the first time and has started SNAP’s first self-help group in Mexico. Aguilar raped him in 1994.
In 2003, a Mexican judge declared Aguilar guilty of sexual abuse, but he was freed on bail and later escaped punishment due to the statute of limitations.
Aguilar, now 64, has worked in at least six Mexican dioceses, most recently in the Diocese of Puebla.
Copies of correspondence between Mahony and his Mexican counterpart will be provided, including one latter in which the Cardinal admits that the number of Aguilar’s victims is “large.”
DETAILS
Attorney Jeff Anderson of St. Paul MN, 612 817 8665 cell
Eric Barragan of Santa Paula CA, Survivor & SNAP Leader 805-207-7424 (hable expanol)
David Clohessy of St. Louis MO, SNAP National Director, 314 566 9790 cell
Mary Grant of Long Beach CA, SNAP Western Regional Director, 626 419 2930 cell
Attorneys Dave Drivon of Stockton CA, 209 969 9644 cell
Attorney Vance Owen of Corpus Cristi TX (habla espanol) 310 720 8648
Attorney Rafael Alday of Monterey/Mexico City, Mexico (habla espanol) 011 52 8111 736543