WASHINGTON
Yakima Herald-Republic
By Donald W. Meyers / Yakima Herald-Republic
dmeyers@yakimaherald.com
YAKIMA, Wash. — A former bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Yakima is expected to testify this afternoon in a sexual-assault lawsuit filed against the diocese.
Bishop Emeritus Carlos Sevilla, who presided over the diocese at the time a man says he was raped by a deacon, is on the witness list for the third day of the non-jury trial in U.S. District Court.
The man, identified on court records as John Doe, alleges that Deacon Aaron Ramirez plied him with alcohol and repeatedly raped him in a trailer at a Zillah church parish in 1999. Doe was 17 at the time.
In his suit, Doe says the diocese, under Sevilla, failed to perform an adequate check of Ramirez background in Mexico before admitting him as a candidate for the priesthood in the diocese. Doe’s suit also charges that the diocese failed to properly supervise Ramirez while he was working the diocese.
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