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Sep 26, 2022
A former priest affiliated with the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento has been added to a list of clergy accused of child sex abuse, according to a report by the Sacramento Bee.
Authorities are currently searching for the sexual predator priest – identified as 70-year-old Roberto Jaramillo – and have issued a felony warrant for his arrest, local NBC 3 KCRA reported.
According to Bishop-Accountability.org, a website dedicated to tracking Catholic priests accused of child sexual abuse, Jaramillo’s profile includes the following information:
The Sacramento Bee’s report detailed the various local churches where Jaramillo served over the course of a decade:
Between 1995 and 2005, Jaramillo was an active priest at Sacramento’s:
Jaramillo also served at St. Rose Parish in Roseville, California. He reportedly left the Diocese of Sacramento to work for the Archdiocese of Atlanta before returning to his home diocese in Colombia in 2008.
The Diocese of Sacramento released a statement last week confirming that they had been previously notified of sexual abuse allegations against Jaramillo by a third party in 2021. According to the Sacramento Bee, the Diocese has two additional allegations involving Jaramillo.
After the 1999 allegation of kissing a boy cited by Bishop-Accountability.org, Jaramillo was accused two years later of sexually abusing a male adult.
“The diocese said it did not receive a report of this information until 2020 and continues to share information about the allegations with the diocese in Colombia,” the Sacramento Bee reported.
“The actions described in these matters are reprehensible and sickening,” Jaime Soto, bishop of Sacramento, said in a statement. “It is heartbreaking to consider the betrayal these sins represent toward innocent victims.”
SNAP (The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests) issued a statement today criticizing the Sacramento Diocese, noting that they had “failed twice to remove Jaramillo.”
“The survivors’ group greatly fears that the three reported incidents in California were not isolated cases. In addition to urging the Archbishop to reach out to those who may have been hurt locally. The group also suggests that the list be more prominently featured on the Archdiocese’s homepage, to help victims who may be wondering if anyone else has reported their abuser.
Moreover, due to SNAP’s formal request, Father Jaramillo’s name was added to the Archdioceses’ list of the “credibly accused.”
To report an incident of abuse by Father Roberto Jaramillo via SNAP, please contact:
Additionally, The Sacramento Police Department’s sexual abuse and child abuse department is asking anyone with information on Jaramillo to contact Detective Matthew Wollman at 916-808-1223 or mwollman@pd.cityofsacramento.org.
The Sacramento Diocese’s Pastoral Care Coordinator may be reached at 866-777-9133.
Studies indicate that approximately one-third of all childhood sexual abuse survivors ever disclose as children. Furthermore, one-third of childhood sexual abuse survivors never disclose the crimes committed against them. Sadly, the average age when childhood sexual abuse is disclosed is estimated to be 52. Accordingly, when survivors do come forward later in life, far too many are unable to obtain justice against their perpetrators due to the statute of limitations on child sex abuse crimes.
However, California’s recent AB 218 law is an unprecedented (albeit limited) opportunity to change these tragic statistics. After AB 218 was passed in the fall of 2019, SNAP issued a statement declaring, “for the next three years that is no longer the case for victims in California,” referring to the average age that survivors come forward often barring their opportunity to seek justice. “By opening a window to justice and allowing survivors whose cases were previously barred by statute of limitation to be heard in court, important information can be exposed that can help create safer, more informed communities,” SNAP said.
Through removing the statute of limitations under AB 218, all survivors now have an opportunity to come forward and pursue justice. However, the deadline to file claims is fast approaching, and AB 218’s three-year lookback window officially closes on December 31, 2022. Until then, however, countless survivors are currently eligible to seek financial damages through civil claims with Dordulian Law Group.
Childhood sexual abuse in the Catholic Church has been widespread for decades. In 2004, a report by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice determined that from 1950 to 2002, a total of 10,667 individuals made allegations of childhood sexual abuse against the Catholic Church. Of those allegations, the dioceses identified 6,700 unique accusations against 4,392 clergy over that time period in the U.S. That represents approximately 4% of all 109,694 ordained clergy (whether priests, deacons, or members of religious orders) active in the U.S. during the time covered by the study (although, it’s important to note, that figure does not include the last 18 years).
Those alarming statistics are even more disconcerting when taking the following statistic into consideration:
Of the 4,392 accused Catholic sexual predators, only 252 (5.7%) were ever convicted.
Given the statistics concerning the average age of disclosure for childhood sexual abuse victims, combined with the number of survivors who never come forward, there are undoubtedly thousands of individuals who now have an opportunity to seek justice against the Catholic Church through AB 218. To do so, however, survivors must come forward and file their claims before the lookback window closes at the end of 2022.
If you have questions regarding a civil claim against the Catholic Church or another sex crime matter, please contact the experienced sexual abuse lawyers at Dordulian Group (DLG) today via 818-322-4056. Our team is here to assist all sexual abuse survivors throughout the journey of securing justice and healing.
If you’ve made the difficult choice to come forward and file a lawsuit against your abuser, the team at DLG believes you deserve not only experienced legal representation to help you succeed in court; we believe you also deserve a thorough support network to assist you in moving on and establishing a semblance of closure. Accordingly, we’ve created an in-house SAJE Team (Sexual Abuse Justice Experts) to provide each survivor with four tiers of representation when pursuing a civil lawsuit against the Catholic Church:
If you experienced a sexual assault incident, don’t wait to file a claim. Contact our expert attorneys online or by phone for a free consultation today.
If you or someone you love is considering pursuing a civil lawsuit against the Catholic Church, we have compiled some resources you may wish to explore.
Contact us today to begin the process of pursuing justice for your Catholic Church child sex abuse claim. There is never any upfront cost to you, as our client, and we only charge a fee after we secure a maximum financial damages award on your behalf.
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