Woman Alleges Abuse by Priest When She Was 14, by Mindy Aguon, Guam Daily Post, April 17, 2017

Woman Alleges Abuse by Priest When She Was 14

By Mindy Aguon
Guam Daily Post
April 17, 2017

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/woman-alleges-abuse-by-priest-when-she-was/article_82bf180c-2310-11e7-9d03-43a1062cce20.html

A woman has come forward alleging she was sexually abused by Father Juan Camacho in the early 1970s when she served as a receptionist at the Santa Barbara Catholic Church in Dededo.

A woman has come forward alleging she was sexually abused by Father Juan Camacho in the early 1970s when she served as a receptionist at the Santa Barbara Catholic Church in Dededo.

A woman has come forward alleging she was sexually abused by Father Juan Camacho in the early 1970s when she served as a receptionist at the Santa Barbara Catholic Church in Dededo.

The lawsuit, which identified the accuser as "T.G." to protect her identity and privacy, alleges that while working at the church when she was 14, Camacho took her into his office, locked the door and sexually abused her until she resisted and began to cry.

The 59-year-old woman said she filed the complaint in hopes to help other abuse survivors come forward.

"I can't imagine I was the only one who Father Camacho abused. I was a little girl and he didn't stop until I started crying," "T.G." stated. "The only way to hold the church accountable is for all of us to come forward so that everyone understands what happened and how it happened."

Camacho is the brother of Monsignor Zoilo Camacho who was mentioned in a separate civil suit filed several weeks ago by Anthony Flores. In that case, Flores alleged that Monsignor Camacho ignored him when he complained that he and other boys were being abused by Father Louis Brouillard and said he was told to "be quiet and get out of my office."

Attorney Kevin Fowler, of Dooley Roberts Fowler & Visosky LLP, said the complaints filed by T.G. and Flores raise serious questions about how the archdiocese ignored complaints from victims who reported abuse by members of the clergy.

"T.G.'s story raises serious questions about whether Monsignor Camacho ignored complaints about Father Brouillard abusing children because he knew his own brother was abusing children," said Fowler in a statement to the media.

Fowler's co-counsel, Michael Pfau of the mainland law firm of Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala PLLC, said in the hundreds of abuse survivor cases his firm has handled, "we have seen brothers cover for other brothers, and priests who engaged in misconduct cover for other priests."

This latest case marks the 50th lawsuit filed against the Archdiocese of Agana. T.G. has asked the Superior Court of Guam for damages to be proven at trial.