By Terry Camp
ABC 12 [Bay City MI]
March 1, 2006
http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=local&id=3952589
Mid Michigan - (03/01/06)--Disturbing testimony came out of a molestation case in Bay City Wednesday. The accused is a former Catholic priest. His accusers are three brothers who are also members of his family.
It was last month when 44-year-old John Rabideau, a former priest, was arrested in Columbia and brought back to Bay City. Wednesday, he was in court to face charges that were initially filed in 1998.
Rabideau, a Midland native, was a seminarian in the Catholic Church when the alleged abuse took place back in 1985 and 1987.
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Wednesday, a courtroom was full of family and friends. The accusers are all children of Rabideau's sister. We are not identifying the accusers. The first to take the stand talked about the summer of 1985.
"During that summer I was sexually molested by my uncle, John Rabideau," one brother testified.
He claims he was molested at least twice -- once when he was 12 and again when he was 14, and described what happened in his grandmother's home in Auburn.
"He slid his hand between the band of my underwear and the skin of my lower abdomen and he continued to put his hand down my pants," the brother said.
The testimony became even more graphic and disturbing after that. The first brother to testify is now 32, and didn't reveal the abuse until he was 20. Rabideau's attorney asked him why he hadn't told anyone earlier.
"I was ashamed at what had happened to me," the brother said.
The second brother to testify described similar encounters with his uncle.
"It happened over a period of two or three summers and I exactly don't remember how many times each summer," he said.
Rabideau was bound over for trial in circuit court. He faces life in prison if convicted on the 11 counts of criminal sexual conduct.
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