Former Santa Barbara Student Alleges Priest Sex Abuse

By Haidee V Eugenio
Pacific Daily News
March 22, 2017

http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2017/03/22/former-santa-barbara-student-alleges-priest-sex-abuse/99482356/

A former student at Santa Barbara Catholic School in Dededo said a former priest sexually abused him while two other students were told to wait outside an office of a Tumon parish in 1981 or 1982.

Jive Lee Kaai, now 47, said he was only 12 or 13 and a student at Santa Barbara Catholic School when former priest Raymond Cepeda sexually abused him at St. William's Catholic Church in Tumon. The church is now the Blessed Diego de San Vitores.

Father Raymond Cepeda is shown in this June 5, 2004 file photo. (Photo: PDN file photo)

Kaai, represented by attorney David Lujan, is the 32nd man to file a Guam clergy sex abuse lawsuit. The case was filed in the U.S. District Court of Guam, and it demands a minimum $5 million in damages and a jury trial.

In a complaint filed Wednesday afternoon, Kaai said the sexual abuse happened after he and several other Santa Barbara students were given detention for getting into trouble at school. Part of their punishment was to clean around the campus, the lawsuit says.

While cleaning around the campus, Cepeda called for Kaai and two other boys to assist the priest in delivering a few boxes of books, the complaint says. Cepeda drove the boys to the Tumon parish, where they unloaded the boxes of books, it adds.

"After unloading the last box, Cepeda told the two other boys to go wait outside and closed the door, leaving Cepeda and Jive alone in the room. Cepeda grabbed Jive, unzipped Jive's pants ... began to sexually molest and abuse Jive," the lawsuit says.

When the priest was done, he told Kaai not to tell anyone, the complaint says. Kaai lived in Dededo during his childhood years, and now resides in Chalan Pago.

"Jive never understood why Cepeda sexually molested and abused him, and since the abuse, Jive avoided going to church unless he had to," the lawsuit says.

This is the fourth clergy sex abuse lawsuit filed against Cepeda.

In 2010, the Archdiocese of Agana reported Cepeda had been removed as a priest after it investigated serious allegations of sexual abuse. At the time, the archdiocese said Cepeda also had been reported to civil authorities.