Secret Religious Order Files Reveals Extent Of Abuse By Clergy Members In Los Angeles

CALIFORNIA
International Business Times

[the files – Law Offices of Raymond Boucher]

By Charles Poladian
on August 01 2013

The unsealed files from five religious orders, totaling close to 2,000 pages, reveal decades of abuse by priests, nuns and brothers working in Los Angeles. The files were unsealed as part of a 2007 $660 million settlement agreement and more files will be unsealed later this year.

The Los Angeles Times reports the documents that were unsealed include transcripts of Rev. Ruben Martinez’s, 73, therapy sessions as well reports filed on a dozen clergy members accused of sexual abuse. The newspaper reports the documents were unsealed as part of a settlement reached by the Roman Catholic Church in Los Angeles as part of a class action lawsuit that included hundreds of individuals alleging sexual misconduct. An additional 45 religious orders will release their own records relating to sexual abuse allegations in the fall.

The unsealed documents contain everything from daily administrative records, vacation requests and updates on various church projects. The Los Angeles Times reports a sense of “reluctance” when it came to documenting allegations of sexual abuse, with the documents using couched or vague terms to describe allegations or problem priests. One supervisor even wrote about the allegations against Rev. Ruben Martinez in Japanese while other parts of the note are in English.

Almost a third of the unsealed documents, 500 pages, contain reports on Martinez and include his therapy sessions which revealed the extent of his sexual misconducts, reports the Associated Press. In his therapy sessions, Martinez confessed to molesting his 5-year-old brother, 100 other boys, visiting gay strip clubs and having sex with male prostitutes, reports AP. Martinez claims he stopped any sexual contact with minors in 1986 and was removed from service within parishes by 1991 and was assigned to administrative positions prior to his retirement. The documents regarding Martinez can be read here, courtesy of the Los Angeles Times.

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