'What did we do?': Anger, shock from parents who unwittingly housed sexually abusive Iowa priest

By Tyler J Davis
Des Moines Register
November 02, 2018

https://bit.ly/2PBaPdS

This August 2010 photo provided by Reuben Ortiz shows retired Catholic priest Jerome Coyle in Albuquerque, N.M. An Associated Press investigation shows that the diocese based in Sioux City, Iowa, quietly transferred Coyle to New Mexico for treatment after he acknowledged in 1986 that he had sexually abused roughly 50 Iowa boys over a 20-year period. Photo by Reuben Ortiz

Marian Home and Village, a long-term car facility that admitted pedophile Rev. Jerome Coyle moved into after leaving New Mexico. Coyle no longer, as of Nov. 1, lives at the facility, which is near a school. Photo by Shelby Fleig

Reuben and Tania Ortiz were remorseful and wondering: Did we really invite a sexual predator to sleep under the same roof as our children?

Reuben said he had to patrol his own house, installing locks on bedroom doors and sleeping in his living room to keep watch on his 13-, 15- and 17-year-olds. Now, he worries that his efforts weren't enough to protect his kids from admitted pedophile the Rev. Jerome Coyle.

“We knew (Coyle) for 13 years and he really spent a lot of time with us … in fact, people would even say ‘Hey, where’s Jerry?’ because he would go places with us," Reuben said from his New Mexico home Wednesday. "He had already spent time, even by himself, with our (kids), at times; I don't know what he did."

Reuben said he spoke with his children after he was informed of the 85-year-old's actions as an Iowa priest. Coyle admitted in the 1980s to attraction to or sexual contact with about 50 boys in central and western Iowa over a span of 20-plus years.

“I am really pretty much in fear that actually something happened,” he said.

The Ortizes are represented by attorney Pat Hopkins of West Des Moines. In a news release Friday, Hopkins, Iowa lawyer Scott Rhinehart and New Mexico lawyer Brad Hall encouraged victims of clerical abuse to contact them at 515-218-7075 or 712-258-8706 or by email. 

"This case clearly illustrates that the ongoing lack of transparency in the Catholic Church poses an ongoing risk to children," Hopkins said in the release. “If this priest continues to pose a risk to children in 2018, then he almost certainly posed a risk to children in the three decades between 1986 and 2018 as well."

Tania and Reuben learned of Coyle's attraction to boys via a letter from the Diocese of Sioux City. He spent nearly 30 years as a priest in about 10 parishes across Iowa, mostly in western Iowa. 

The letter to the Ortizes from diocesan Vicar General Bradley Pelzel said Coyle self-reported in 1986 his "victimization" of more than 50 boys. He was then sent to New Mexico's Servants of the Paraclete, a treatment facility for priests accused of sexual abuse, and stayed in the state for more than 30 years.

The diocese sent the Ortizes the message about four months after Coyle notified the church, which never defrocked the priest and helps pay for his living expenses, that he was staying with the family following a car accident. The couple took the elderly man in in late October 2017 because he had no one to help him at his apartment.

The diocese wrote to the couple in February that it "cannot condone the risk you take" by housing Coyle with the minors. 

"They didn't take any proactive measure; they just advised that he didn't stay with us," Tania said.

Shocked, confused and sickened, the Ortizes confronted the man they'd known affectionately as Jerry. 

"We asked him ‘Can you promise us that you won't harm our son? We’re right down the hallway from him.'"

Coyle said, “'No, I can’t promise that, no I can’t. I can’t,'" Reuben recalled, "and then he started convulsing in his bed, going side to side with his head. It was a serious, serious matter."

The parents remained firm. 

“After he said that to me, I looked at him and said 'You know, Jerry, I’m gonna be honest with you: If you harm my son, I don’t know what I’m capable of doing,'" Reuben said. "That’s what I said to him. And you know, I think, in many ways that was a turning point.”

Following that talk, Coyle — who had originally lobbied the diocese to stay with the Ortizes, or, at the very least, remain in New Mexico — became more open to moving back to Iowa, according to the Ortizes. However, the diocese, Reuben said, wanted him to remain in Albuquerque to curb the chances that he'd meet a previous victim as an adult.

Tania said after multiple requests from Coyle to leave the southwest, the diocese sent deacons to get his things from Albuquerque and flew him back to Iowa. But that wasn't until June, three months after officials let the family know their children were sleeping near a child abuser.  

"If (diocese officials thought) it was urgent, they would have taken him back right away or a found a place for him," Tania said.

Finally, the nights of anguish were lifted from the couple, who have been married for nearly 26 years. Once Coyle left, Reuben said, he was finally able to admit to his wife how on edge the situation had made him. 

He said he had stayed up all hours of the night, roaming his home and locking his children's doors as they slept. Now, he feels a duty to tell his family's story in hopes of keeping other kids safe and holding church officials accountable for covering up Coyle's abuse. 

"It was June 29th, after he was gone, I just came down the stairs like a bolt and said, 'I can't take this. I'm going to tell everybody about this, because this is not right,'" he said. "It's like we're the dartboards and (church officials are) throwing darts at us.

"I think most of the men of the Catholic Church have this secret obedience that's aligned with the devil, that's aligned with evil. And they've become so much a part of that, that everyone's expendable now."

Once he left New Mexico, Coyle stayed at Fort Dodge's Marian Home and Village, which is directly across the street from Saint Edmond Catholic School, a K-12 private school. 

The Ortizes were angered to learn that Coyle was living near children, saying the 85-year-old is a "danger" to kids. Tania said the diocese's decision to move him there was "insensitive" to Coyle's victims and the children in the area. 

Reuben, who was a victim of sexual abuse as a child at the hands of family member, said Coyle should be in jail. 

“A crime is a crime and you should pay for that crime," he said.

“For him and for the victims,” Tania added.

Eric Halverson, an administrator at the Marian Home, said Thursday afternoon that Coyle is no longer living at the long-term care facility. A spokeswoman for the Diocese of Sioux City said Coyle is living with a friend. 

Coyle has not been interviewed since his history came to light this week.