MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald
BY ELINOR J. BRECHER
ebrecher@herald.com
A 38-year-old Broward County man, who says a Catholic priest raped him when he was a young illegal immigrant, has obtained church records that he claims will bolster his bid for punitive damages against the priest and the Archdiocese of Miami.
''Juan Doe'' sued the Archdiocese and the Rev. Ernesto Garcia-Rubio in 2002, claiming the one-time pastor of Our Lady of Divine Providence in Sweetwater raped him once in 1984.
Garcia-Rubio was defrocked in the late 1990s after allegations that he had raped a young parishioner and sexually abused four Central American refugees.
Last year, the Archdiocese agreed to pay $3.4 million to settle almost two dozen lawsuits against various priests, including Garcia-Rubio. But the Juan Doe case is still being fought in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.
In court papers filed Friday, Fort Lauderdale lawyer Russell Adler claims that he has obtained documents that now prove the Archdiocese knew Garcia-Rubio was a danger to young boys many years earlier and did nothing to stop it.
He argued that the evidence, including a letter written 36 years ago, enables his client to seek punitive damages.