Convicted Child Molester and Priest Alejandro Castillo Faces Another Lawsuit on Sexual Abuse
An Ontario priest convicted last year of molesting one boy has been sued for allegedly sexually abusing another.
The Rev. Alejandro “Alex” Castillo was released from jail in April after serving eight months for sexually abusing a then-12-year-old parishioner at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic parish in Ontario in 2008.
The civil suit filed Monday, Sept. 18, in San Bernardino County Superior Court alleges that in 2003 and 2004, Castillo also repeatedly sexually abused a teenaged boy in the same parish.
The parish, the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino, and the Riverside-based Western Province of the Society of the Divine Word, an order of priests and brothers, are also named in the suit. They are accused of negligence for not doing enough to protect the boy.
According to the suit, Castillo was “a known child predator” before he abused the teenaged boy.
The boy now lives in Mexico, said his Pasadena attorney, Anthony De Marco. He was 15 and 16 years old when the abuse occurred, De Marco said.
The lawsuit alleges there were complaints that Castillo sexually abused children in the 1970s and 1980s while in a seminary in Mexico and at the Divine Word seminary in Chicago. He later served as a Divine Word priest in Southern California.
De Marco said the Divine Word society was aware of the abuse complaints and had a responsibility to inform the diocese of them before Castillo became a diocesan priest.
In addition, Castillo regularly gave full-body massages to another victim in the early 2000s, the suit says. The victim, who was 17 or 18 at the time of the alleged abuse, is also considering a civil suit, De Marco said.
Castillo was sentenced to eight months for molesting the 12-year-old boy after pleading guilty to a charge of lewd and lascivious acts with a child younger than 14. He could have faced 22 years in prison if convicted of all eight felony charges against him. He entered the guilty plea in an agreement reached after the victim’s parents said they wanted to spare the boy the pain of testifying in court.
In September 2011, the parents of that boy filed two civil suits against Castillo and the diocese, one on behalf of the then-12-year-old boy, the other on behalf of the boy’s then-16-year-old brother
John Manly, an attorney representing the boys' family in their civil suit, said the case is ongoing. He believes there are many more victims.Source
