MONTERREY (MEXICO)
Albuquerque Journal [Albuquerque NM]
February 4, 2020
By T.S. Last / JOURNAL NORTH
SANTA FE – A former Catholic priest accused of kidnapping and raping a boy under the age of 13 more than 30 years ago was acquitted on both counts by a Santa Fe jury on Tuesday.
Marvin Archuleta, 82, had been assigned to Holy Cross Catholic School in Santa Cruz in the mid-1980s, but his defense attorney argued that Archuleta was not in New Mexico at the time of the alleged assault during the 1986-87 school year. At that time, he was assigned to a parish in Silver Springs, Maryland.
His accuser, now a 40-year-old man, claimed the assault took place when he was a 6-year-old first grader at the school.
The jury deliberated for about three hours before returning the verdict.
“I think the evidence was clear Marvin Archuleta was in Maryland the entire time of the alleged victim’s first grade year, and there wasn’t any evidence to the contrary,” said Ryan Villa, Archuleta’s attorney. “Frankly, the story just didn’t add up.”
Assistant Attorney General Brittany DuChaussee argued during the four-day trial that Archuleta would still visit New Mexico occasionally around the time of the alleged crimes. As evidence, she produced a newspaper article from the time that depicted Archuleta presiding over a funeral in the area.
The case against Archuleta began in October 2018 when the alleged victim filed a lawsuit against Archuleta, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and the Vatican.
While the alleged victim could not remember the name of the man who abused him, he identified Archuleta from an old photograph.
The accuser, who testified Friday, claimed that the former priest had pulled him and two other boys out of class ostensibly to be recruited as altar boys. He claimed that he alone was then taken to the church’s sacristy by a priest and offered cookies and punch. He was later made to kneel on a chair, his pants were pulled down and he was raped while being told he wasn’t being punished, but “this is how God loves you.”
The accuser said that over the years he turned to alcohol and drugs as a way to deal with the emotional pain and had overdosed on drugs multiple times. It wasn’t until 2016 when he realized that there was a connection between being raped as a boy and his drug and alcohol addiction, chronic depression and failure to sustain intimate relationships, according to the lawsuit he filed two years later.
Archuleta was one of more than 70 priests, deacons and seminarians on a list of priests credibly accused of sex crimes against children released by the Archdiocese of Santa Fe in 2017.
His case is the first to be prosecuted by state Attorney General Hector Balderas’ office, which has been investigation accusations of sex abuse of children in Roman Catholic churches throughout the state.
Journal North reporter Edmundo Carrillo contributed to this report.