CALIFORNIA
Courthouse News Service
By JEFF D. GORMAN
(CN) — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles is not off the hook for two men’s claims that a monsignor molested them decades ago, a California appeals court ruled.
Juan H.J. Doe and Juan H.L. Doe claimed that Monsignor Benjamin Hawkes molested them from the mid-1970s to the early to mid-1980s. During that period, the boys were ages 14 through 21.
Hawkes, who died in 1985, “lavished them with meals, clothes, travel and money,” according to court records. He also allegedly financed trips and paid for J. Doe’s private school tuition.
The monsignor, who worked for the Los Angeles archdiocese at the time, “communicated in words and deeds that the compensation he was providing for them was for the abuse he was committing upon them, and that by providing for [them] in this manner, Hawkes believed he owned [them],” according to the two men’s lawsuit.
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