By Matthew Campbell
CBS 3
November 8, 2007
http://www.cbs3springfield.com/news/local/11100206.html
An accused predator priest could still be roaming around Western Mass.
Agawam Police are investigating Father Aaron Cote. He was ordained back in 1986. The priest from Holyoke has worked at St. Theresa Parish in South Hadley and St. Mary's in Westfield in the early 1990s. We know that, after a national support group paid a visit to the Pioneer Valley.
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"Allegations and lawsuits and suspension and settlement involving Father Aaron Cote have been public knowledge now for at least two years," says David Clohessy, national director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
In 2005, Cote was accused of abusing a 14 year old boy in Washington D.C. three years earlier. It made national headlines. The case was settled in August and a group of Catholic Friars agreed to a $1.2 million settlement.
Cote has also faced allegations in Rhode Island, Peru and Ohio. After each case, the father was transferred to a different parish, until he was suspended in 2005.
"We were removing priests from ministries who had credible allegations long before the Dallas norms," Springfield Diocese spokesperson, Mark Dupont says.
But the controversy didn't end there. Less than a year ago, a West Springfield family claims Cote invited their two boys to visit and stay in his quarters in Agawam. It was there where they say he molested them.
Agawam Police and Catholic officials are now investigating. But local Catholics say they didn't know about the past incidents since Cote was long gone when these allegations surfaced.
"During his time and immediately after his time, there were no immediate reports of sexual misconduct," Dupont says.
CBS 3 Springfield went to Cote's family home in Chicopee Wednesday night, but no one inside would comment.
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