BishopAccountability.org
	Providence Diocese Suspends Priest Accused of Molesting Teenager Associated Press, carried in WPRI [Providence RI] November 16, 2005 The Diocese of Providence has withdrawn a priest accused of molesting a Maryland teenager from his duties at a Rhode Island parish. The diocese says it withdrew the accused priest, Aaron Joseph Cote, from Saint Pius the Fifth Parish in Providence today after learning that a lawsuit had been filed in a Washington D-C court accusing Cote of child sexual abuse. The lawsuit was filed by Brandon Rains, an 18-year-old who has accused Cote of sexually molesting him in 2001 and 2002 while Cote was serving at Mother Seton Parish in Germantown, Maryland. Cote, a Dominican priest, was assigned by the Providence diocese to Saint Pius in 2003. A diocese official says Cote had been cleared based on information given to it by the Dominican Order, and that he passed a criminal background check before he was assigned.