BishopAccountability.org

New lawsuit alleges abuse in Tumon parish

By Mindy Aguon
Guam Daily Post
March 22, 2017

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/new-lawsuit-alleges-abuse-in-tumon-parish/article_6a5b738a-0eea-11e7-a559-27e03810a0d9.html

A former Santa Barbara Catholic School student has alleged that a former priest sexually abused him inside a room at the Tumon Catholic Church when he was a young boy.

Jive Lee Kaai, 45, filed a lawsuit in the District Court of Guam accusing former priest Raymond Cepeda of sexual abuse when he was 12 or 13 years old.

According to the lawsuit, between 1981 and 1982, Kaai was attending school at Santa Barbara Catholic School in Dededo and Cepeda was a priest at the Dededo parish and appeared to be in charge at the school.

Court documents state the Catholic school students were taught to honor and respect not only the nuns, but also the priests and do whatever they told them to do.

Kaai recalls getting into trouble one day with several other students and having to stay back for detention and clean the campus.

Cepeda allegedly called Kaai and two other boys to help him load and deliver a few boxes of books to the St. Wiliam’s Catholic Church in Tumon. The priest drove the boys to the church to unload the boxes in a room inside the Tumon parish.

The lawsuit states Cepeda told the other two boys to wait outside and closed the door. Cepeda began sexually abusing Kaai, telling him to relax. Court documents state the priest told him, “Don’t worry. Don’t you like it?”

Kaai made efforts to make Cepeda stop and when the priest was done, he told the boy not to tell anyone.

Since the abuse, Kaai has avoided going to church unless he had to.

The lawsuit seeks a minimum of $5 million in damages to be determined at trial and marks the 32nd sexual abuse lawsuit to be filed against the Archdiocese of Agana.




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