PROVIDENCE (RI)
Washington Post
By Caryle Murphy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 17, 2005; Page B06
A Roman Catholic priest was removed from his job at a Rhode Island parish after being accused yesterday in a D.C. Superior Court lawsuit of sexually abusing a Germantown teenager over several months in 2001 and 2002.
The Rev. Aaron Joseph Cote, 54, associate pastor at St. Pius V Church in Providence, was put on administrative leave, according to the vicar provincial of Cote's religious order, the Dominicans. "He'll be marking time until this is resolved," said the Rev. Raymond Daley.
Cote's removal from ministry came hours after the parents of the alleged victim, Brandon Rains, announced at a sidewalk news conference that their son, now 18, had filed a lawsuit against Cote.
The conference, which was arranged by the victims' advocacy group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, took place outside the downtown Washington hotel where U.S. bishops were holding their semiannual meeting.