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	Dominican Priest Who Served Locally Surrenders to Maryland Police By Father Bill Pomerleau iobserve July 3, 2008 http://iobserve.org/nn0703b.html SPRINGFIELD – A Dominican priest who once served as parochial vicar in two parishes of the Diocese of Springfield was jailed overnight July 1 after turning himself in to police in Maryland. Father Aaron Joseph Cote, 56, surrendered to the Montgomery County Police in Rockville, Md. after learning that authorities were about to seek a warrant for his arrest. He was charged with custodian child abuse and was held on $250,000 bond. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and a prominent Minnesota lawyer allied with the group quickly issued statements in reaction. "Kids are safe because Cote is behind bars. We're happy," said attorney Jeffrey Anderson, who represents victims of sexual abuse by priests. "Finally, in this case, we're seeing justice," said SNAP President Barbara Blaine. But the following day, Father Cote posted his bond and was released from police custody. At a court hearing, he failed in an attempt have his bail reduced, and was scheduled for a pre-trial hearing on Aug. 1, officials said. Father Cote, who was an associate pastor in 2001 and 2002 at Mother Seton parish in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Germantown, Md. had been accused of sexual abuse by former altar boy, Brandon Rains, who filed a lawsuit against him in 2005. According to Montgomery County police, the priest had been counseling Rains while serving part-time as youth minister at Mother Seton. In summer 2001, when the boy was 14-years-old, police said, Cote took Rains to an apartment in Germantown and "engaged in inappropriate personal sexual activity in the victim's presence and inappropriate touching of the victim." The abuse allegedly continued for about one year, according to the police. The New York City-based St. Joseph Province of the Dominicans agreed last year to settle a lawsuit filed against it and Father Cote. Rains received $1.2 million. The related criminal investigation was suspended during the civil court proceedings. At press time, it was unclear why criminal charges had been filed at this time. "We do expect him to be fully exonerated," said Father Cote's attorney, Terrance McGann. In April, a West Springfield woman alleged in a lawsuit filed in New York that her young children had been sexually abused by Father Cote from approximately 2002 to 2005. Anderson told iobserve.org at the time that the priest had harmed the then 4- and 6-year-old boys during visits to a family he knew in this area. The now-suspended priest, who had been living at a Dominican residence in New York, was permanently removed from public ministry on Nov. 15, 2005 by the Diocese of Providence, R.I. and his religious superiors. He had served as a parochial vicar at St. Pius V Parish in Providence since 2004. Father Cote is a native of Holyoke and graduate of The Catholic University in Washington, D.C. After graduate studies with the Dominicans, he was ordained a priest in 1986. After ministry outside the Diocese of Springfield, he served as appointed parochial vicar at St. Theresa Parish in South Hadley from April to September, 1991. He then became a parochial vicar of St. Mary Parish in Westfield where, among other duties, he cared for Spanish-speaking parishioners. Father Cote left the diocese in 1995. After allegations were made against him in the Archdiocese of Washington in 2003, others accused him of abusing minors in Peru, South America.
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