Former altar boy fought abuse, called priest 'bad father'

By Mindy Aguon
Guam Daily Post
April 4, 2017

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/former-altar-boy-fought-abuse-called-priest-bad-father/article_bb5c8964-1920-11e7-975d-2382052012fb.html

SCANDAL: Saint Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church in Sinajana, shown, is the latest church to be named in the ongoing child sex abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church in Guam. Photo by David Castro

Donald Vincent San Agustin was 10 years old when he served as an altar boy at Saint Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church in Sinajana.

Every day he would go to the Sinajana parish to help clean up and set up the church for evening Mass and clean the church office and rectory.

Now 58 years old, San Agustin filed a civil complaint in the District Court of Guam yesterday against the Archdiocese of Agana, the Boy Scouts of America and Louis Brouillard.

The lawsuit, filed on his behalf by attorney David Lujan, alleges that in 1969, Brouillard would frequently stop by the Sinajana parish to pick up or drop off documents and grope and fondle San Agustin. Brouillard would downplay his actions by saying that he was "just playing," court documents state.

About a year later, San Agustin joined the Boy Scouts troop for Sinajana, where was going to take swimming lessons to earn a merit badge.

Brouillard would take the boys swimming at Lonfit River and instruct the boys to swim only in their underwear and allegedly groped and touched their private parts, the lawsuit states.

San Agustin alleges that during one lesson, Brouillard instructed him to swim to him in the deep area and tried to sexually abuse him. The boy kicked and yelled at Brouillard, and told him that he was a "bad father."

The lawsuit states San Agustin quit the Boy Scouts and stopped being an altar boy after the swimming incident.

San Agustin is seeking a minimum of $10 million in damages from the Archdiocese of Agana and the Boy Scouts.

The lawsuit contends the archdiocese knew of Brouillard's sexual abuse and "deliberately remained quiet" and withheld such information from the victim's parents and law enforcement authorities to protect Brouillard and the archdicoese.

It also alleges the Boy Scouts of America and Aloha Council knew or should have known that Brouillard was a sexual predator of young boys because he had committed acts of sexual molestation at least two decades prior to molesting San Agustin.

On April 17, Brouillard is scheduled to be interviewed through a deposition in Minnesota, where he now lives, in relation to more than two dozen similar civil complaints filed in Guam.