A lawsuit has been filed alleging that former New York Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera and his wife, Clara, failed to intervene to prevent an underage girl from being sexually assaulted.
Neither are being directly sued or accused of sexual abuse, according to USA Today.
The complaint named as defendants Refugio de Esperanza, a church in New Rochelle, New York, and 1 Brook View Rye, LLC. Clara Rivera is the senior pastor at the church. The address of 1 Brook View, Rye, New York, was the Riveras’ primary address.
The lawsuit alleges that a girl identified as Jane Doe suffered sexual abuse in Florida during the summer of 2018, and the Riveras did nothing after the girl’s mother made a complaint.
The lawsuit also alleges that sexual abuse took place in a 2018 incident at the Riveras’ home.
Joseph A. Ruta, the attorney for the Riveras, pushed back against the allegations.
“Mariano and Clara Rivera do not tolerate child abuse of any kind and allegations that they knew about or failed to act on reports of child abuse are completely false,” Ruta said in a statement, adding that the couple knew nothing of the incident until they received a request for a financial settlement.
“The lawsuit, which seeks financial damages for the Riveras’ alleged failure to act on alleged incidents that were never reported to them, is full of inaccurate and misleading statements which we have no doubt will not hold up in a court of law,” Ruta said.
Adam Horowitz, a lawyer representing the alleged victim, said in a statement, “Our lawsuit alleges that Mariano and Clara Rivera had a duty to protect our client and missed the opportunity to save her from the harms of sexual abuse,” according to the New York Post.
The lawsuit said that the alleged initial abuse took place at the Ignite Life Center in Gainesville, Florida, where the victim claims she was abused by an older girl who was a minor.
The lawsuit claimed that the girl went to Florida at the urging of Clara Rivera.
The alleged victim was 11 years old at the time.
The lawsuit claims that the Riveras went to the Ignite Life Center after being told of the abuse, and that the girl’s mother was “assured” by Clara Rivera she would “respond accordingly.”
The lawsuit said that instead, the Riveras “each separately isolated and intimated Jane Doe to remain silent about her abuse … [to] avoid causing trouble.”
As noted by USA Today, the lawsuit claims that in August 2018, the girl was invited to a party at the Riveras’ home, where she was sexually assaulted by the same teen who allegedly abused her in Florida.
In August 2021, the lawsuit said the victim was sexually abused by an adult connected with the church.
Rivera, 55, was a closer for the New York Yankees from 1995 through 2013 and was later elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He is baseball’s all-time leader in saves.
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