New Priest Named in Child Sex Abuse Claim
By Neil Pang
A 12th complainant claiming child sexual abuse against Archdiocese of Agana clergy filed litigation for damages in the Superior Court of Guam yesterday. Documents filed by plaintiff attorney David Lujan name Robert Aguon Perez as the 12th claimant in a series of suits filed on behalf of child sexual abuse survivors against various named and unnamed parties with in the Archdiocese of Agana including Archbishop Anthony Apuron, former Guam priest Rev. Louis Brouillard and deceased Guam priest Rev. Antonio Cruz. Perez's complaint adds yet another name to the growing list of named archdiocesan clergymen who have been accused of child sexual abuse by former altar boys. According to court documents, Perez was abused at the St. Jude Rectory between the years 1982 and 1985 by former Guam priest Rev. David Anderson, who served as a priest at the Sinajana Parish at the time. Documents further add that the abuse continued throughout 1985 to 1986 at the Father Duenas Memorial School, where Anderson taught theology and where Perez attended when he was around 14 or 15 years old. Details in the suit state that Anderson had continued access to Perez while at the Sinajana Parish where the former Guam priest would obtain permission from Perez's parents to have Perez sleep over at the rectory. Documents note that "whenever (Perez) slept at the rectory, Anderson sexually molested and raped him" and adds that while the abuse started when Perez was 11, it escalated to rape when Perez was 12 or 13. 'Sexually molested and raped' The suit states that Perez was "repeatedly sexually molested and raped by Anderson" during the period that both were occupants of the FDMS campus. Perez's case marks the 12th such filing against the Archdiocese of Agana, names the third priest to be identified thus far and is the second to allege rape in addition to child sexual abuse. In addition to the suit filed by Walter Denton, Perez's complaint is only the second to specifically claim sexual penetration as a detail of the sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of Guam clergy. On Nov. 1, Denton filed a similar suit against the Archdiocese of Agana that alleged rape via sexual penetration by Apuron in 1977, when Denton was an altar boy at the Agat Parish where Apuron ministered at the time. Perez's complaint joins the six filed so far against Brouillard, the four filed against Apuron and marks the 12th filed against the Archdiocese of Agana and other unnamed entities and parties. Like the suits before it, Perez's suit also implicates up to five unnamed entities and up to 45 unnamed individuals. These entities are insurance companies that provided liability coverage to the archdiocese. Meanwhile the individuals are those who allegedly aided or abetted the abuse but who are unknown at this time. The complaint can be amended to identify these individuals at a later date, the suit stated. Each of the suits further included a demand for jury trial and relief in the form of an unspecified amount in damages to be determined at trial. Seeking out survivors So far, all of the active suits against the church have been by individuals represented by attorney David Lujan, but the law offices of Lujan, Lujan and Wolff no longer represents the only law firm actively seeking claimants of child sexual abuse against archdiocesan clergy. Another law office has recently thrown their hat into the proverbial ring with advertisements across various platforms seeking survivors of child sexual abuse. According to their website, Guam Sexual Abuse Attorneys is constituted by attorneys from the Guam firm Dooley Roberts Fowler and Visosky, and is focused on helping survivors of child sexual abuse recover from their past traumas through litigation. "Abuse survivors have often not had (help leading successful lives) when they needed it most because the abuse has been kept to themselves or pushed into the shadows of their lives," their website states. "Assisting those survivors of abuse who seek to come to terms with their past through reconciliation efforts with organizations that may have tolerated their abusers may be an important step to provide help today that was not available to them yesterday."
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