MANATEE (FL)
Bradenton Herald
RICHARD DYMOND
Herald Staff Writer
MANATEE - A 49-year-old Tampa man who claims a priest sexually abused him when he was an altar boy at a Sarasota church is suing the Catholic Diocese of Venice.
James Woods' civil suit, which also names dioceses in St. Petersburg and St. Augustine, claims that The Rev. Jose Mena, who is now retired and living in Jacksonville, sexually abused him in 1965 at Incarnation Catholic Church on Bee Ridge Road.
Filed in Hillsborough County, the suit states that Mena was involved in the youth ministry at Incarnation and sexually abused Woods on numerous occasions during the 1965-66 school year while Woods was in the fifth grade at Incarnation Catholic School and an altar boy at Incarnation Catholic Church.
The alleged abuse occurred on the premises of Incarnation, the suit states.
A call to Mena was not returned Tuesday.
Posted by kshaw at March 2, 2005 03:30 AM