NEW JERSEY
The Record
BY KIBRET MARKOS
STAFF WRITER | THE RECORD
A Passaic woman testified on Tuesday that her 14-year-old daughter told her a priest at a Catholic church in her neighborhood sat her on his lap and touched her inappropriately three years ago.
The mother, whose name is being withheld to protect her daughter’s identity, testified in Superior Court in Paterson that the family lived across the street from the St. Mary’s Assumption Church on Market Street, where The Rev. Jose Lopez was a priest.
The mother said her daughter started going to the church at a time when she was depressed and that she felt better once she started going regularly and met Lopez frequently.
She said Lopez was like a family member who was often invited to meals or other occasions at their home.
In 2013, however, Lopez told her that “he went too far” with her daughter but assured her that all he did was place her on his lap and hug and kiss her, she said. Lopez also told her that the police were involved and asked her not to say anything bad about him if investigators asked her about him, she said.
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