BAKERSFIELD (CA)
Bakersfield Now
[with video]
By Jose Gaspar, Eyewitness News
Published: Feb 1, 2013
BAKERSFIELD, Calif.—George Santillan was just 10 years old at the time when he says, a priest at St. John’s Catholic Church in Wasco began to molest him and his younger brother, Howard.
“He would take me in the back and do all kinds of things,” said George Santillan. “I was really confused, I didn’t know what I should do,” said the now retired Santillan.
In a lawsuit filed by the Santillan brothers against the Diocese of Fresno, the brothers claim the alleged abuse was at the hands of Father Anthony Hardegen and lasted between 1959 and 1973.
A judge in Los Angeles recently ordered the Los Angeles Archdiocese to release thousands of pages of files related to sex abuse cases in which children were allegedly molested by numerous priests. The files are a disturbing read and reveal that church leaders, including Cardinal Roger Mahoney never reported suspected cases to police.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.