LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
October 28, 2018
By Alejandra Reyes-Velarde
A former Catholic priest who was convicted of sexually abusing minors is the subject of a lawsuit filed by two brothers who say he molested them in the early 1990s while he ministered at a church in Riverside.
Carlos Rene Rodriguez was able to abuse the then 7- and 12-year-old boys because the Catholic Church protected the priest and allowed him to continue serving in the church despite knowing his troubled history, according to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday.
Rodriguez, 62, pleaded guilty in 2004 and was sentenced to eight years in prison for molesting two brothers in Santa Paula a decade earlier. He was released after four years. He now lives in Bakersfield, according to the Megan’s Law website that lists the whereabouts of registered sex offenders.
The lawsuit accuses the Archdiocese of Los Angeles of allowing Rodriguez to continue to minister to families despite admitting to a church official that he molested a boy in 1987. Church officials from the Los Angeles Archdiocese and San Bernardino Diocese failed to keep him away from children, according to the suit.
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