111185C State v Aaron Joseph Cote
My
name is Brandon Rains; I am the victim in this case. I intend to describe how the
sexual abuse of the priest Aaron Cote, negatively affected me at the time of
the abuse and also permanently in my life. There are many parts of my life
affected with mistrust, anger, fear, and overwhelming sadness. I will convey the
best I can, the pain that I have suffered for seven years.
At
the time of the abuse my brother Josh, who was my lifelong best-friend, was
enduring many difficult challenges growing into an adult. I was suffering the
loss of my relationship with Josh and turned my interest to the Catholic Church
and eventually my trust also to Aaron Cote or “AJ” as he liked to be called. AJ
was a great friend to me. He would listen to my struggles, give me advice, take
me to fun places, and frequently buy me gifts. I felt that spending so much time
with a respected priest would bring me closer to God and secure safety in my
life; I was extremely wrong. After the grooming had begun and the abuse
occurred, the relationship between AJ and I changed. Now I had his attention
all the time. He seemed even more interested in me, waving at me, and winking
during his own church service in front of all the parishioners. It took years
of moral inventory before I realized the extent of the damage that he caused.
When I realized I was groomed and that AJ had sexually abused me, I was
devastated. I refused to believe that AJ was not my friend, but I have since
come to find that he has made a profession of grooming and has it down to a
science. It seemed ridiculous that it was years after the abuse before I could
charge his actions for all of my ongoing mistrust and pain. In this sick
perverted man I lost my trust, innocence, dreams, and ability to freely
remember my childhood. I spend time stuck in flashbacks and I’m left feeling disgusting.
I can’t trust any older men especially once they become friends. I question
their motives constantly. AJ once made me swear to him that I would never tell
anyone what kind of friendship we had because he said he would lose his collar;
today I’m doing the opposite. I hope that one day he will feel the pain, anger,
sadness, and fear that he has caused in so many. This man has recklessly ruined
countless innocent young boys, around the country and world with only his
sexual perversion in mind. It is difficult to know that Aaron Cote will now
hardly have to pay the debt he owes. But, I do find comfort in knowing that
everyone faces judgment sooner or later.
Romans 12:19 says “Do not take revenge my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath for
it is written; vengeance belongs to me, I will pay them back, declares the Lord”.
My anger has been misplaced several times in all of this because Aaron Cote is sick for what he has done, but his superiors are the true evil ones. So many people live their lives never seeing the truth of this mafia resembling organization called the Catholic Church. It became obvious to me the lengths to which the Catholic Church will go to cover up the child abuse scandals around the world but, the more disturbing thought is they will pay whatever they have to in order to not have true justice served. Here is a man that for the past twenty to thirty years has traveled state to state and even out of the country, sexually abusing young boys, all the while with most of his fellow clergy and superiors knowing. Aaron Cote holds dark secrets in his mind about the things he has done and possibly worse, the things that other priests have done as well. They will spend enormous amounts of money to keep this very dark, but not so well hidden secret from the majority of the world. The ability for truly sick men to go around abusing as often as they please is what makes me nervous as a father. I trust in God to keep exposing the truth and bring these truly sick and evil men to justice. As it stands, there needs to be complete reform, if not abolition of the Catholic Church.
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