WASHINGTON
Yakima Herald-Republic
By Jane Gargas / Yakima Herald-Republic
jgargas@yakimaherald.com
YAKIMA, Wash. — For the first time, the Catholic Diocese of Yakima is going to trial over a case of alleged clergy sexual abuse.
A man, referred to as John Doe in court documents, is suing for more than $3 million, alleging that when he was 17 he was repeatedly raped one night in 1999 by a man studying to become a priest in the Yakima Diocese.
The teenager subsequently told police, but they were unable to locate the aspiring priest, called a deacon. They learned later he had left his Zillah church the day after the alleged incident and traveled to Wenatchee. A day after that, he fled to Mexico. To the authorities’ knowledge, he has never returned to the United States.
A non-jury trial before Judge Edward Shea is scheduled to start Monday in U.S. District Court in Yakima.
Doe is represented by attorneys with Tamaki Law, a Yakima law firm that has won settlements in a number of lawsuits against the Catholic Church. Earlier this year, the firm reached a proposed $15 million settlement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena, Mont., on behalf of 362 people who claimed they had been sexually abused by clergy members in a series of cases dating to the 1940s.
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