Recent Filings Make 65 Child Sex Abuse Lawsuits against the Church

By Donna De Jesus
Pacific News Center
May 12, 2017

http://www.pacificnewscenter.com/local/13527

A total of five lawsuits were filed this week against the church.

Guam - After five recent child sex abuse filings in recent weeks, there are now 65 lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Agana.

Three out of the five alleged victims, using their initials E.T., J.S., and R.B.R., claimed that former priest and Boy Scout master, Louis Brouillard, abused them in the late 1970s when they were altar boys at the Barrigada Parish as well as boy scouts in the Barrigada troop. All three allege that Brouillard would grope them when he would make them swim naked. They claim he would also sexually abuse them in the church rectory. R.B.R.’s complaint states that Brouillard reassured him by saying “It’s okay. All of the other boys do it,” before forcing him to perform various sex acts.

The latest to file, P.W., claims Brouillard abused him in the early 60s when Brouillard was a priest at the Mangilao parish. P.W. was not an altar boy or a boy scout, but the complaint states that the former priest allowed him to hang out at the parish. P.W. claims that Brouillard would line the boys up in front of a mirror and take nude photos of them.

The fifth victim to file this week was N.Q., who named Father Andrew Mannetta of San Miguel Church in Talofofo of abusing him in the 80s when N.Q. was a parishioner who volunteered to clean the church after school and on weekends. Mannetta increased his interaction with N.Q., and court documents state that the victim was sexually abused over 50 times, which drove him to cease being Catholic and to turn to drugs to self-medicate.

The victims were between the ages of 9 and 15 when the abuse began.