Victim Tells Story; Jury to Deliberate

By Crystal Stevenson
American Press
February 5, 2016

http://www.americanpress.com/news/local/20160205-broussard-trial

A state district court jury will begin deliberations today in the case of former priest Mark Broussard, who is accused of sexually assaulting a then 8-year-old altar boy at St. Henry Catholic Church in the late 1980s and early ’90s.

Broussard is charged with molestation of a juvenile, oral sexual battery, aggravated oral sexual battery and two counts of aggravated rape.

On Thursday, prosecutors called their last witness, a man who said Broussard sexually assaulted him in the LSU-Eunice student center in the summer of 1981 — a charge to which Broussard admitted in 1988.

The victim, who was 14 at the time, said his relationship with Broussard began when he was an altar boy at Our Lady Immaculate Catholic Church in Jennings. He said Broussard would frequently travel to Jennings to help with services at the church and that is where the two met.

“It was at first fun,” he said of their friendship. “With me and a couple other buddies, he took us on day trips to farms, check out the roosters, wrestle on the front lawn. He acted like he was one of us. He was in his late 20s. It was like he was a fun adult.”

The victim testified his father had died of a heart attack that year and his mother was appreciative of Broussard acting as a male role model for her son.

“My mom thought it was excellent, it was great,” the victim said through tears. “My mother is from a family of all girls. Other than her husband, I was the first male. When she lost my dad she took it hard. My mother was excited I was spending so much time with a member of the Catholic church.”

The victim said he remembers the night of the assault vividly.

“You remember specific things at the time of a traumatic event,” he said, his voice cracking. “I remember him teaching me to drive and when we got back (to the student center) he offered to buy some beer, but he didn’t want me to go with him. He came back with a six-pack, and I drank two or three beers and was feeling intoxicated.”

He said that at some point during the night, he and Broussard began measuring their penises on a notepad to see whose was larger. He said they were still clothed at the time.

“At some point down the line he had me go to the back bedroom,” he said. “It’s not easy to talk about. After so many years, you try to put this stuff behind you.”

He said that when he entered the bedroom, Broussard started fondling him and took the victim’s clothes off.

“He said he wanted to take a shower with me. He brought me in the shower and started performing oral sex on me,” he said. “At some point I started crying and I ran out of the room. It didn’t feel good. I was drunk and I knew something wasn’t right.”

The victim said he later found Broussard in the chapel’s prayer room “and that’s when I started trying to console him. I told him, ‘It’s OK. Let’s forget about it.’ ”

The victim said Broussard drove him home the next morning. “He said if I ever needed to talk about it, let him know,” the victim testified. “I felt like it was my fault.”

He said Broussard contacted him again a year later to attend Mardi Gras in New Orleans. The victim said curiosity about Mardi Gras led him to accept the invitation. He said Broussard bought him beer during the trip, but nothing sexual happened.

The victim said that after the Eunice incident, he struggled with alcoholism and drugs and was in and out of treatment centers throughout high school.

“I started seeing this therapist who specializes with abused boys specifically,” he said. “I said, and this is going to sound weird, ‘I wish he had just tied me up and raped me physically because it would have been easier for me to deal with.’ ”

The victim said Broussard called him in 1988 while he was a patient at a treatment center.

“At the center they told me, ‘Your father called.’ I said, ‘My father? He’s deceased.’ Then it came out it was Father Broussard,” he said. “I never called him back. I went to my therapist and told him what happened. He told me it was time to confront him.

“I wrote a letter — I still can’t believe I did this — and a friend of mine went with me to the rectory and I talked to him,” the victim said. “I told him I didn’t want him to respond. I read what I wanted to say to him. It was obviously uncomfortable. He said, ‘I know you told me not to respond. I just want you to know I got treatment for that.’ ”

The victim said he wanted to “move on” and “do what I needed to do.”

“I had an unbelievable devotion to the church because that’s how I was raised,” he said. “It felt like I needed to reconcile. I felt like I wanted to have my spirituality back.”

He said he wrote a letter to Monsignor Charles DuBois on Nov. 8, 1993, and explained what had happened in the student center.

He said DuBois and Deacon George Stearns helped coordinate a trip for the victim, his mother, his then-girlfriend and his therapist to go back to the Eunice student center to participate in a reconciliation process. He said the Diocese of Lake Charles paid for all the expenses for the trip.

He also said the diocese gave him $26,500 toward his therapy expenses.

Later in the afternoon, the Rev. Anthony Fontenot, pastor of Christ the King parish in Lake Charles, testified as a defense witness.

Fontenot said he was a high-school-age altar server at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Catholic Church at the time Broussard was a priest there.

When defense attorney Tom Lorenzi asked him if it was common for an altar server to go out to eat or bowling with a priest, Fontenot said, “I only remember Mark doing those things.”

Fontenot said he could remember going out to eat after Mass with Broussard, but that he was never alone with Broussard during those excursions.

During cross-examination, prosecutor Cynthia Killingsworth asked Fontenot if, as a priest now, he would ever take an altar server out to eat or bowling.

“No, ma’am,” he responded.

“Because it wouldn’t be a good idea?” she said.

“No, ma’am, it would not,” he said.