A new lawsuit accuses California Cdl. Roger Mahony of sexually abusing a male minor. It is the first such lawsuit ever brought against the former archbishop of Los Angeles.
Filed April 19 in Los Angeles Superior Court, the plaintiff, under the alias John Doe, is suing “The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles,” which includes Cdl. Roger Mahony and staff of the archdiocese.
The lawsuit alleges Mahony “repeatedly sexually assaulted, molested and abused” Doe in 1986, when he was 17. The plaintiff also accuses the archdiocese of knowing about the archbishop’s abuse and covering it up.
Doe describes himself as being raised in Mexico and moving to Los Angeles when he was still a minor in 1986. There his family attended St. Vibiana Catholic Cathedral, the former cathedral of the archdiocese before it was replaced by the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
It was at St. Vibiana where Doe first met Abp. Mahony, who took a special interest in the boy, becoming a “trustworthy mentor” and gaining the boy’s “trust and confidence as a spiritual guide” and “authority figure.”
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