Aug 28, 2007 4:28 pm US/Pacific
Sacramento Church Sues Alleged Sex Abuse Victim
Says Man Missed His Opportunity
Sam Shane
Reporting
(CBS13) SACRAMENTO In a move critics call bizarre and unprecedented, the Catholic Church in Sacramento is turning the tables. The church is suing a man who says he was sexually abused by a priest when he was a child.
The Sacramento Roman Catholic Diocese, headed by Bishop William Wiegand is suing Hector Rubio. Rubio says when he was a child he was sexually abused by father Gerardo Beltran who was once a priest in the Sacramento diocese. Advocates for those abused by priests are outraged.
“It's wrong for the bishop to play legal hardball. It's especially wrong for a bishop to sue a child sex abuse victim,” says Nancy Sloan with S.N.A.P.
Rubio, who now lives in Texas, says Beltran sexually abused him more than twenty years ago, when both of them lived in California. In recent months, Rubio has filed and then withdrawn civil lawsuits against the Sacramento diocese.
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“The bishops money could be used for something better than suing a child victim and it could be spent better trying to get the perpetrator back to Sacramento to face justice,” says Joey Piscitelli with S.N.A.P.
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