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Suit For Clergy Sex Abuse Relies On Alien Tort Claims Act

By Howard M. Friedman

The Los Angeles Times reports that on Tuesday, a lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Los Angeles (CA) invoking the 1789 Alien Tort Claims Act in a clergy sex abuse case. The Act allows foreign victims of human rights violations to sue for damages in U.S. courts. This is apparently the first time that statute has been used in a clergy abuse case. Plaintiff alleges that as a 12-year old altar-boy, he was raped repeatedly by Father Nicolas Aguilar Rivera in Mexico in 1997. Aguilar had fled to Mexico from Los Angeles in 1987 after Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony learned of police suspicions about him. The lawsuit charges that Cardinal Mahony and Mexican Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera covered up known charges against Aguilar, and claims that top church officials knew Aguilar was about to flee to Mexico but failed to inform police. Aguilar's was not defrocked until last year, and he is now in hiding, apparently in Mexico where an arrest warrant for him is outstanding.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on April 22, 2010 (boomark / email).