CALIFORNIA
MyNewsLA
POSTED BY TONI MCALLISTER ON MARCH 14, 2017
A widow sued the archdioceses of Los Angeles and Orange Tuesday on behalf of herself and her four children, alleging her husband committed suicide at age 50 because he was depressed about being sexually molested by a priest years earlier in Placentia.
Robin Ward Agrusa filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging wrongful death and negligence and naming St. Joseph Catholic Church and St. Joseph Catholic School as additional defendants.
Representative of the two archdioceses could not be immediately reached.
The suit states that Mark Paul Agrusa was born into a family of devout Catholics and attended St. Joseph’s Church and its school from 1974-78. During that time, he met the Rev. Eleuterio Ramos, who “set his sights on Mark’s youthful vulnerability,” the suit alleges.
Agrusa became an altar boy and served sacraments during Mass with Ramos, who began sexually molesting him and warned him not to tell anyone, the suit alleges.
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