WASHINGTON
Yakima Herald-Republic
By Donald W. Meyers / Yakima Herald-Republic
dmeyers@yakimaherald.com
YAKIMA, Wash. — Testimony is expected to resume in U.S. District Court this morning by a man who says he was raped in 1999 by a deacon with the Catholic Diocese of Yakima.
In testimony that began Monday, the man, identified in court as John Doe, said he was 17 years old when Deacon Aaron Ramirez invited him to a Zillah church building to learn how to play the guitar and talk about the Bible, but instead got him drunk and then repeatedly had sex with him.
“He just kept doing it,” a tearful Doe told the court. “It seemed like it was going on for days.”
Doe is suing the diocese for $3.1 million, arguing that the diocese failed to properly check Ramirez’s background before accepting him as a candidate for the priesthood and didn’t properly supervise him.
The diocese says it had no prior warnings that Ramirez had problems with young boys, and that Doe’s accounts of the incident were inconsistent.
Tuesday marked the second day in a nonjury trial before federal Judge Edward Shea that is expected to last into next week.
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