WASHINGTON
Yakima Herald
By Molly Rosbach
mrosbach@yakimaherald.com Jun 12, 2017
GRANGER, Wash. — Rev. Gustavo Gomez Santos from the Our Lady of Guadalupe parish in Granger has been removed from all public ministry following allegations by a young man that the priest sexually abused him in his teenage years, the Yakima Diocese reported Monday morning.
The 21-year-old victim is a former Mattawa resident who told the Yakima County Sheriff’s Office the priest had fondled him five or six years earlier when Gomez Santos was serving in the St. Juan Diego parish in Cowiche.
Gomez Santos, 51, is from Guadalajara, Mexico, and was ordained in Yakima in 2002. He was placed on leave on May 5 after the Sheriff’s Office shared the allegations with the diocese. He will continue to live in a “supervised setting” while the church’s investigation continues, the diocese said.
The priest continues to deny the allegations. But his credibility was undermined by admissions that he violated the diocese’s code of conduct in numerous other ways, including giving alcohol to minors, giving and receiving massages to and from minors, giving them expensive gifts, and allowing them to stay overnight in his residence in several parishes, the diocese release said.
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