B'VILLE-BASED K OF C LEADER ACCUSED OF CHILD SEX ABUSE

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (Reuters) - The Knights of Columbus was sued on Tuesday by two men who said they were sexually abused as children by a leader of a youth group run by the Roman Catholic fraternal organization.

The federal lawsuits allege that Knights of Columbus officials knew a leader of the Columbian Squires youth group in Texas was molesting children but did not make any effort to stop him or remove him from the position. (The group also alerted local authorities in Brownsville, Texas, where the leader identified in the lawsuits as Juan “Julian” Rivera was based.)


The suits are believed to be the first child sex abuse claims filed against the Catholic group, said Jeffrey Herman, the attorney representing the two alleged victims.

“Like so many victims, these two men have suffered in silence for literally decades, and finally they are getting help,” said Herman.

The Roman Catholic Church has been rocked by sex abuse scandals worldwide. Some priests have been convicted of pedophilia, other cases have been settled in civil courts and the church has paid millions of dollars in damages.

In the largest compensation deal to date, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed in 2007 to pay $660 million to 500 victims of sexual abuse dating as far back as the 1940s.

“We emphatically deny the allegations that have been made,” said Patrick Korten, a spokesman for the Knights of Columbus.

With 1.8 million members worldwide, the Knight of Columbus is the world’s largest Catholic mens’ organization and is focused on charity work.

Its Squires youth division is made up of some 28,000 boys ages 10 to 18.

(The Valley Morning Star reported that "Julian Rivera terminated his membership in the Knights of Columbus in January 2010, according to the website. There was no one home at the address listed under his name.

But outside the Knights of Columbus branch in Brownsville on Wednesday, Herman, the attorney for both of the men who filed lawsuits, said the cases reflected “a pattern of abuse by the people who families trust the most.”

Stone, who stood beside Herman, said the old Knights’ building on Old Port Isabel Road gave him chills. He said it was the place where he first began to serve in the Columbian Squires, the Knights’ youth organization for 10- to 18-year-old boys, which helps host fundraisers and events.

Stone, who said he is undergoing rehabilitation treatment in Kansas, said Rivera plied him with whisky, marijuana, pornography and a white pill that he said would help him relax, according to court filings. He said that when he hesitated to give Rivera a massage, Rivera brandished a small handgun and placed it on the ground, according to allegations in the lawsuit.

Stone’s lawsuit alleges Rivera sexually abused him for six years on overnight trips for local and national events of the Squires.

“I thought I was in the hands of someone who was going to take care of me,” he said.)
In one of the lawsuits, an unnamed Kansas resident claims the Squires leader abused him from 1978, when he was 10 years old, until 1986.

He claims the leader shared him with other youth counselors in the group and threatened to kill him if he told anyone, the lawsuit said.

The second lawsuit came from Texas resident Jim Dennany, who said he alerted Knights of Columbus officials in 1986 to assaults he said he suffered in the 1970s when he was a young teenager.

He claimed the group took no action, concealed the allegations and told him to keep quiet, according to the lawsuit.

The accused former youth group leader remained a youth leader with the Knights of Columbus until last year, said Herman, a Miami-based attorney who specializes in sex abuse cases.

“We allege that Rivera fit the profile where they should have known he was a potential predator,” the attorney said. “He openly paraded himself around with boys and did not even try to cover it up.”

The Knights of Columbus spokesman said the group first became aware of allegations of sexual abuse against Rivera in December 2009.

“We acted immediately, removing him from any responsibility involving youth programs,” Korten said. The group also alerted local authorities in Brownsville, Texas, where Rivera was based, he said.

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