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	Judge Oks Suit against Mexican Priest over Sex-abuse Claims By Doug Irving Orange County Register March 1, 2011 http://www.ocregister.com/news/priest-290226-mexico-mexican.html A federal judge in Santa Ana has cleared the way for a Mexican man to sue the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles over his claims of sexual abuse at the hands of a since-defrocked priest. The man lives in Mexico City and says the abuse also occurred in Mexico when he was a child. He filed suit here, however, under a 222-year-old law that allows foreigners to sue in U.S. court in some cases; it has been used in particular to address human-rights abuses. Church attorneys had sought dismissal of the case by arguing that U.S. courts do not have jurisdiction. But U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton Tucker, in Santa Ana, ruled on Friday that the case can proceed. She did not rule on the merits of the suit itself. The suit alleges that recently retired Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony and his counterpart in the Mexican Diocese of Tehuacan conspired to protect the priest and help him avoid authorities on both sides of the border. The priest had fled U.S. authorities who wanted to arrest him in 1988 for suspected molestations in Los Angeles, said Jeff Anderson, the attorney for the man who brought the lawsuit. The priest, Rev. Nicholas Aguilar Rivera, abused as many as 60 children in Mexico, including the plaintiff, Anderson said. The complaint lists 10 causes of action, including rape and crimes against humanity. Aguilar Rivera came to Los Angeles from Mexico on a temporary assignment in 1987. The Mexican bishop had contacted Mahony and asked him to take in Aguilar Rivera for a year due to family and health reasons, according to the lawsuit. The bishop later introduced the priest to Mahony with a letter than mentioned that Aguilar Rivera had been brutally attacked in his Mexican parish, possibly because of problems of homosexuality that had not been proven, according to the lawsuit. Mahony has said he never received letters from the Mexican bishop explaining the priest's history. Two altar boys accused Aguilar Rivera of molestation less than a year after his arrival in Los Angeles. The priest fled to Mexico just days before U.S. authorities charged him. He was defrocked in 2009 and remains at large in Mexico, where he was believed to be living out of his car in Central Mexico. He has been wanted by U.S. authorities on 19 felony counts of lewd conduct since he returned to Mexico. Michael Hennigan, an attorney for the archdiocese, said Mahony was not aware the priest had a history of sexual abuse when he accepted him in Los Angeles. Mahony has since asked the Mexican bishop for help finding the fugitive priest, Hennigan said. "We think the court is suggesting — and we agree — that this needs to be addressed on the merits of the case and we will attempt to do that," Hennigan said. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact the writer: 714-704-3777 or dirving@ocregister.com
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