Lawsuit: Chaplain for Department of Youth Affairs sexually abused 14-year-old boy

By Haidee V. Eugenio
Pacific Daily News
June 10, 2019

https://bit.ly/31owSaq

Mannetta

A priest who was serving as a chaplain for the Department of Youth Affairs allegedly sexually abused one of the boys incarcerated at the Mangilao facility for young juveniles years ago, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court on Monday.

The lawsuit, filed by a plaintiff identified in court documents only as BBB to protect his privacy, says former Guam priest Andrew Mannetta abused the boy when he was 14 years old.

Mannetta invited BBB to accompany him to his room at the friary in Sinajana to change his clothes, the lawsuit says.

That's where the priest abused the boy by touching his private part and doing a sexual act on him, the lawsuit says.

"Plaintiff resisted Mannetta's act but was too small to stop the abuse," the lawsuit says. The boy became resentful towards the DYA chaplain after the incident, the complaint says.

BBB, represented by attorney David Lujan, demands $5 million in minimum damages.

The plaintiff named Mannetta and the Capuchin Franciscans as among defendants, along with up to 47 other unnamed defendants.

"BBB could no longer handle the pain, humiliation and embarrassment Mannetta inflicted on him, so he quit going to the DYA church and ceased attending until a new priest, non-pedophilic was assigned to DYA," the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit does not indicate the approximate date or year when the alleged sexual abuse happened. Mannetta, originally from New York, first came to Guam in 1980 as a seminarian and was ordained into the priesthood at the Archdiocese of Agana in May 1983, according to Pacific Daily News files.

Mannetta has been accused of sexually abusing other altar boys on Guam, based on previous lawsuit filed.

One of the attorneys for the priest's first two alleged victims described Manetta in a previous lawsuit as a "notorious pedophile" who was shifted from parish to parish within Guam before being transferred to Hawaii.

Mannetta was accused of sexually abusing a minor in Hawaii, from 1997 to 2001, but the Catholic Diocese of Honolulu settled with the accuser for $375,000 to avoid trial, PDN news files state. The priest later was transferred to New York.

BBB's lawsuit says Mannetta currently resides in Hawaii.