Judge rules for Archdiocese in case of Maywood priest who groped janitor

LOS ANGELES >> Judgment has been granted in favor of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in a lawsuit brought by a former janitor at a Catholic church in Maywood who alleged she was forced to quit in 2019 after an associate pastor groped her in the rectory and tried to coerce her into his bed.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Christopher K. Lui's action on Monday affirmed his June 17 ruling dismissing the case brought by the Long Beach woman, who worked as a custodian at St. Rose of Lima Church. The parish is adjacent to a school as well as a rectory that housed the living areas and offices of pastor Dario Miranda and associate pastor Primitivo Gonzalez, the suit said.

The suit also named the church and school as defendants and the judge found that neither they nor the archdiocese were liable for the alleged abuse of the plaintiff by Gonzalez.

“The alleged conduct by Father Primivito Gonzalez is reprehensible,” Lui wrote. “However, there is no evidence that he had a history of committing other acts of sexual assault or that there was a risk he would sexually assault plaintiff.”

Gonzalez competed the archdiocese's background check and had no reported history of sexual abuse or inappropriate conduct, the judge wrote.

“Father Gonzalez had never come on to plaintiff prior to the date of the sexual assault,” the judge wrote.

According to the suit, on the morning of July 30, 2019, the plaintiff was directed to clean the parish rectory, including Gonzalez's private living space. She was normally assigned to maintain only the school and church, but the employee who normally maintained the rectory was absent that day, the suit filed in December 2020 said.

The plaintiff, who was unfamiliar with the rectory because she had not cleaned it before, encountered Gonzalez in the kitchen on the first floor and he showed her the various rooms, including his own quarters, comprised of a bedroom with a private bathroom, according to the suit.

“I was standing when suddenly I felt that my wrist, that someone was touching my wrist,” the plaintiff said in a deposition given on March 4. “After that, I froze. I didn't know who had grabbed my wrist. And then I turned around and his hands were touching my breast. I was walking backwards until I got stuck on the wall and I noticed that it was him and I just opened my mouth because I couldn't believe that the priest was doing this.”

The woman said Gonzalez put both of his hands against the wall and that he “put his body very close to mine and he was touching me. He wanted to kiss me and I was moving my head from one side to the other, and he would move his head from one side to the other doing the same thing that I was doing.”

The plaintiff said she “stepped on my tiptoes so that I could be a little bit taller than him so that he couldn't kiss me, but he grabbed my neck. He was breathing hard, and after that, he moved one of his hands away from the wall and he put my blouse down and my bra.”

The priest then said “Mamacita, I dreamed of you. Let's go to bed,” according to the plaintiff.

The clergyman continued rubbing his body against hers, the plaintiff said.

“I couldn't move,” she said “I couldn't think at the moment.”

The plaintiff said she escaped from the bathroom, turned around and saw the priest, following her and exposing himself. The plaintiff suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and her psychiatrist concluded she is permanently unfit to resume employment within the archdiocese, according to her court papers.

Gonzalez admitted his wrongdoing and the archdiocese reported the woman's accusations to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, according to the defense attorneys' court papers. Gonzalez was kept out of the ministry, moved to Northern California to live with his brother in August 2019 and died in December 2020 at age 83 of complications related to dementia, according to the archdiocese attorneys' court papers.

The archdiocese said in a statement that the plaintiff was not forced to resign, continues on leave of absence as she had requested and may return to work if she chooses to do so. She also has received compensation and medical support.