KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter
June 24, 2020
By Soli Salgado
Ali met Catholic composer David Haas when she was 14 years old, attending his Music Ministry Alive camp for three years starting in 2002. She recalled him being a hands-on mentor, remembering names and affirming the talents of the 150-or-so music students who attended the program each summer.
It wasn’t until five years later that unwelcome sexual advances tainted the relationship, when Ali and Haas ran into each other at the Religious Education Congress in Los Angeles, Ali told NCR.
Taking her to a more secluded area with benches outside the congress, Haas surprised Ali by “aggressively” kissing her and trying to put his hands down her shirt, she said.
Ali, who was 19 at the time, pulled away and turned down his invitations to his hotel room that night. Several times throughout the years, he’d continue to seek her out when he knew they were at the same event through their professions.
Ali learned only recently that her encounter with Haas was part of a pattern of abusive and manipulative tactics that Haas allegedly deployed on dozens of young people who knew him through the Catholic music community.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.