LOS ANGELES (CA)
Fresno Bee
By GILLIAN FLACCUS – Associated Press
Monday, May. 13, 2013
[Nicolas Aguilar Rivera – Los Angeles archdiocese]
LOS ANGELES — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles wants a judge to throw out a lawsuit filed by a man who claims he was molested by a foreign priest who remains a fugitive 25 years after fleeing to his native Mexico.
Police detectives who investigated after the Rev. Nicolas Aguilar Rivera fled in 1988 believed he molested as many as 26 children, many of them altar boys, during the nine months he spent in Los Angeles.
An arrest warrant on 19 felony counts remains in effect if he ever returns to the U.S., said Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney William Hodgman. His whereabouts are unknown.
Eleven of the priest’s alleged victims, all now grown men, have filed six civil lawsuits against the archdiocese. The first of those could go to trial later this month. Plaintiff attorneys plan to call as a witness the recently retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, who was at the helm of the nation’s largest archdiocese when the alleged abuse occurred.
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