CHANGE MY LOCATION
Local
Multimedia News
Priest charged with sex abuse of altar boy surrenders to police
SEE HOW THIS STORY DEVELOPED
Related Topics: WASHINGTON
The Rev. Aaron Joseph Cote, 56, worked part time in youth ministry at Mother Seton Parish in Germantown between 1999 and 2002 and part time in religious education at Bethesda’s St. Jane Frances de Chantal Parish between 1997 and 1999. Police allege Cote engaged in “inappropriate touching of” and “inappropriate personal sexual activity” in the presence of a then-14-year-old victim, who was seeing Cote for counseling. Police say Cote first brought the child to a Germantown apartment during the summer of 2001, and the abuse continued for about a year.
The alleged victim’s attorney, Jeff Anderson, said his client revealed the abuse while undergoing later counseling. His family first notified the police in 2003, but police spokeswoman Lucille Baur said because the incidents happened in private, they were difficult to confirm. “We have to be able to substantiate with evidence before we can charge an individual,” Baur said.
In 2005, the alleged victim filed a civil lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Washington and the Dominican Order, saying church leaders knew Cote was a “threat to kids” yet continued to keep him in the ministry. The Archdiocese of Washington, whose officials say they relied on background checks by the Dominican Order before accepting him for work, was released of any liability. The Dominican Order paid the victim a $1.2 million settlement in 2007.
“I am deeply concerned by the deceit and secrecy of the Dominican Order,” Anderson said. “For 20 years they knew about these allegations and had him working in five states and two different countries, never doing anything.”
In April of this year, Cote was sued by the family of two Springfield, Mass., brothers whose parents allege he molested them in 2003 when they were less than 5 years old.
A man who answered the phone at the Dominican Order’s New York City headquarters told The Examiner that Cote had never been defrocked and refused further comment on the case.
kmiller@dcexaminer.com
Comments from Examiner Readers
7:13 AM MST on Thu., Jul. 3, 2008 re: "Priest charged with sex abuse of altar boy surrenders to police"
Report as inappropriate
Sister Maureen Paul Turlish said:
Aaron Cote was only arrested in Maryland because its criminal statutes are somewhat better than most although it civil statutes are gravely deficient. Even though the police said that they have been investigating this individual for years, it was only because additional evidence was brought foward that he was finally criminally charged. Most victims of childhood sexual abuse in Maryland as elsewhere will never have the opportunity to bring forward the horrors surrounding their sexual abuse as children. Interesting that "No parties admitted wrongdoing in the settlement." Institutional leadership seem genetically programmed and therefore unable to admit that wrongs, evils,sins and crimes were committed. Marylanders need to know that a recent bill introduced in Annapolis by Assemblyman Eric Bromwell was successfully thwarted by the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the Maryland Catholic Conference, the only church denomination to so viciously attack both the bill and the per
3 agree | 1 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree