Arrested Priest May Have Had Sexual Contact with Teen Girl

By Jasmine Stole
Marianas Variety
March 24, 2015

http://www.mvariety.com/cnmi/cnmi-news/local/75134-arrested-priest-may-have-had-sexual-contact-with-teen-girl

Last week, after receiving a phone call from a person about the Rev. Luis Camacho’s arrest, Deacon Steve Martinez said he was obligated to report the allegations of sexual contact to the proper authorities including the archbishop and the government.

On March 18, Martinez sent a letter to Child Protective Services and Archbishop Anthony Apuron relating what he was told about Rev. Luis Camacho’s arrest last week Tuesday. Martinez wrote that on March 17, Camacho illegally transported the 17-year-old girl from Southern High School without her parents’ permission.

Camacho reportedly drove the minor to a Subway restaurant and then to a remote beach in Agat “and had sexual contact with her and that the (Guam Police Department) arrested (Camacho),” Martinez wrote in his letter.

GPD said Camacho was booked and charged with custodial interference for being with a female minor who was not in school at the time they were found parked at the beach. Camacho was released from police custody the same day.

Yesterday, Carlina Charfauros, public information officer for the Attorney General’s Office, said other than the initial police report, no other reports were forwarded to their office.

The same day Martinez sent his letter to Apuron and CPS, the archdiocese issued a statement announcing Camacho’s resignation and that his faculties as a priest would be restricted. Martinez said CPS contacted him the next day acknowledging receipt of his letter but, as of yesterday afternoon, no one from the Archdiocese of Agana had spoken to him about the same letter sent to Apuron.

“If it’s true, if he had sexual contact with an individual, if it is a person who is a child defined as someone under the age of 18, then sex abuse is what the policy defines it as,” Martinez said. “Whether or not there was consent, that might make a difference from a criminal standpoint … but from the archdiocese standpoint, they still have to resolve was there a violation of the sex-abuse policy.”

Martinez said the Agana Archdiocese Sexual Abuse Policy requires any member of the clergy who is made aware of an allegation of sex abuse is to report it to the government and the archbishop. Martinez reported what he was told to CPS because the girl was still a minor, he said.

The archdiocese’s sexual-abuse policy was implemented in 2002 and, according to the policy, sexual abuse is usually defined as “intentional sexual conduct between a priest or deacon and a minor.” A child is any person under 18 years of age, the policy said.

Martinez said he served as the archdiocese’s sexual abuse response coordinator from 2007 until October 2014, when Deacon Larry Claros was assigned the position.

Claros said on March 18 that he would not be involved with Camacho’s case.

Martinez said he did not know if an investigation into Camacho’s arrest has been initiated because he is no longer the sexual abuse response coordinator. He also said media questions about any investigations are supposed to be forwarded to the archbishop, as per the sexual-abuse policy.

Since the statement issued on March 18 and signed by the Vice Chancellor Rev. Jose Alberto Rodriguez, the archdiocese has not issued any other public statement about Camacho’s arrest. The statement issued last week said the archdiocese has initiated a canonical investigation, but no other details about the investigation have been released.

“The AG and GPD would have to look at, ‘Was there a crime committed?’” Martinez said. “In this case, if she is under the age of 18, the archbishop’s own policy describes that as sex abuse so, if he deems it that an investigation is warranted. Even if the AG does not prosecute, an investigation by the archdiocese would still need to determine if sex abuse had taken place. And not by the government standard, but by the standards of the archdiocese policy.”

Martinez said his letter was in line with the sexual-abuse policy and he did not release the letter to the public. “I was just doing what was required of me, so hopefully that doesn’t create problems for me,” he said. “How it got publicized I don’t know because I did not send it to anyone other than who I was required to send it to. I sent a copy to the archbishop and CPS. But apparently it got into the hands of the media and so there it is. I don’t think I will be in any hot water.”

Contact: jasmine@mvguam.com