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Image credit: St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church by Claudio Coello, courtesy of Wikipedia.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $500,000 to settle a sexual abuse lawsuit filed by a former janitor who worked at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Maywood. The woman alleged that in 2019, Associate Pastor Primitivo Gonzalez groped her in the rectory and attempted to coerce her into his bedroom, leading to emotional distress so severe that she was unable to continue working, Long Beach Post News reported Friday.
Court documents indicate the archdiocese presented the settlement offer on April 9, with attorneys for the plaintiff signing off shortly thereafter. Notice of the settlement was filed with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Christopher Lui on Monday. In a statement, the archdiocese expressed hope that the resolution would allow the woman to “heal and move forward,” while clarifying that she was not forced to resign and had not been terminated.
Initially, in July 2022, Judge Lui had ruled in favor of the archdiocese and dismissed the case. He concluded there was no evidence that Gonzalez had a known history of sexual misconduct that would have alerted church officials to the risk he posed. However, that ruling was overturned in April 2024 by a three-justice panel of the Second District Court of Appeal. Justice Luis Lavin, writing for the court, stated that there were triable issues as to whether the alleged sexual assault created intolerable working conditions that led to the plaintiff’s workplace disability.
According to the plaintiff’s deposition, the assault occurred on July 30, 2019, when she was asked to clean the parish rectory, a location she had never cleaned before. She encountered Gonzalez in the kitchen, and he showed her around before allegedly grabbing her wrist and touching her breast. She recounted freezing in shock before retreating, only to find Gonzalez following her and exposing himself. The woman later sought therapy and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Her psychiatrist determined she was permanently unfit to return to work for the archdiocese.
Defense attorneys noted that Gonzalez admitted to wrongdoing and that the archdiocese promptly reported the incident to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Gonzalez was removed from ministry, relocated to Northern California, and passed away in December 2020 at the age of 83.
Notably, this case is distinct from the $880 million settlement the Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to in October 2024, which addressed more than 1,300 childhood clergy abuse claims filed under California’s AB 218 lookback window. That broader agreement dealt with systemic abuse spanning decades, while the $500,000 settlement resolved a separate claim involving adult workplace misconduct. Because of the different nature and legal basis of the claims, this lawsuit was not included in the 2024 settlement.
For information on filing a clergy sexual abuse lawsuit, visit SurvivorsRights.com’s comprehensive Catholic Church Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Guide.
