EL PASO (TX)
KFOX14
February 7, 2018
By Samantha Lewis & Jamel Valencia
Las Cruces NM – A priest who served at a parish in Las Cruces for nine years and the Las Cruces Diocese are facing a lawsuit.
The lawsuit accuses the Rev. Ricardo Bauza of sexual battery, alleging he sexually abused a victim in the rectory at St. Helena Catholic Church in Hobbs, New Mexico, in 2016, according to court records.
Before becoming a priest in Hobbs, Bauza was a priest at St. Genevieve Catholic Church in Las Cruces from 2005 to 2014.
The lawsuit was filed in Las Cruces on Monday, according to court records.
It alleges Bauza abused his power as a priest to sexually harass and sexually abuse the alleged victim and that the Las Cruces Catholic Dioceses and St. Helena facilitated the priest’s abuses and helped him flee New Mexico
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