Fr. James C. Lara
Ordained for the Diocese of Toledo, Spain. Sent to the Florida as a missionary priest in 1959. Incardinated into the Diocese of St. Petersburg in 1968. Pastor of Church of the Nativity in Brandon 1969 until he retired in 1999. Elevated to Monsignor the same year. Per 4/2002 news, Lara was accused in a 11/1987 lawsuit of touching and making sexual advances toward the daughter of the parish music directors, who had been fired five months earlier. The abuse allegedly began when the girl was 14 and continued for 5 years. The parents also accused Lara of slandering them and of hitting and pushing the wife just before the church fired them. The suit was “amicably resolved” in 1990, per court records. Lara died 2/14/2019 in Spain.
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