‘It’s an institutional failure’: New lawsuit alleges sex abuse by former De La Salle counselor, teacher

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Jay Hoey was just 15 when the abuse by a former theology teacher and counselor at De La Salle High School started.

For two years starting in 1969, Hoey said during a press conference Wednesday at the high school, Joseph “Jesse” Gutierrez abused him, touching his genitals during school time and forcing him to fondle Gutierrez’s genitals.

Later, Gutierrez took Hoey and other minor students on a trip to San Francisco, where he gave them drugs and alcohol, brought them to a club and sexually abused Hoey, according to a lawsuit filed by Hoey against Gutierrez, the Brothers of the Christian Schools order, and De La Salle High School.

The lawsuit is one of the first under a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom this month that gives survivors of childhood sexual assault a one-time, three-year window to sue perpetrators or those aware of the abuse and extends the statute of limitations for them to do so.

Hoey’s lawsuit seeks damages for trauma and severe mental, emotional and physical pain, as well as compensation for a loss of earning capacity resulting from the abuse.

He said he hopes the lawsuit and his public statement will urge other victims of sexual abuse by Gutierrez or others in the religious order to come forward.

“So many feel that they don’t have an outlet,” Hoey said. “I wish someone would have spoken up years ago.”

Gutierrez could not be reached for comment. He is on the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland’s list of “credibly accused clerics.” On its website, the diocese says about those on the list that after a “review of the reasonably available, relevant information, there is reason to believe the allegation is more likely than not to be true.”

Hoey’s lawsuit alleges the religious order knew of Gutierrez’s sexual misconduct as early as 1966 — before his alleged abuse of Hoey.

Hoey’s attorney, Joseph George, provided a letter dated May 14, 1968, that is written by Brother Bertran Coleman and addressed to the Rev. James Mara.

The letter states that “we changed Brother Joseph from Berkeley to Concord two years ago because he became emotionally involved with some students. This involvement had sexual overtones.”

It goes on to say that Gutierrez was not “honest” with Coleman when he discussed complaints of his behavior with him but noted that while an “excellent” teacher and counselor, there was “question of the harm he may have done to those with whom he allowed himself to be deeply and emotionally involved.”

Hoey, now 65, only found out about that letter several months ago.

“I felt totally ripped off,” Hoey said Wednesday about learning that other clergy members had allegedly known about Gutierrez’s past misconduct but still transferred him from St. Mary’s High School in Berkeley to De La Salle.

That revelation came after a lifetime of psychological trauma, he said.

For 50 years since the abuse started, he has suffered at times from anxiety, depression and even suicidal thoughts, Hoey said.

He remembers clearly the first time Gutierrez — a popular figure at the school — was his teacher. It was a theology class during Hoey’s junior year in room 201 at De La Salle.

There were no desks and chairs, but rather pillows and couches, and a lot of meditation during which Gutierrez would sometimes massage the boys and touch their bodies.

He was with a handful of other boys when Gutierrez took them in his Toyota to San Francisco, handed them each a white pill — a Quaalude, Hoey said he learned later — and brought them to a club in downtown San Francisco. There were maze-like rooms with various people performing sex acts and drinking, he said.

Hoey said he was touched sexually “in places I had never been touched before.”

Gutierrez left the order in 1985 and worked at the Hanna Boys Center in Sonoma as a counselor, according to information from news archives, the diocese and Hoey’s attorneys, who believe Gutierrez was most recently working as a consultant in Sonoma County. When Gutierrez was accused in a 2003 lawsuit of abusing another high school student years before, the Christian Brothers reached a settlement for $4 million in 2004.

Tim Stier, who left the priesthood under the Oakland Diocese in 2005 because he could not tolerate a “practice of aiding and abetting” child abuse, talked Wednesday about how widespread abuse by priests has been in the area.

Every Catholic boys high school in the diocese had abusers in its midst, he said.

“Jay should never have suffered this abuse. The Christian Brothers knew they were a danger,” he said. “It is mind-boggling what (Gutierrez) was able to get away with.”

Melanie Sakoda, a coordinator for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, praised the law Newsom signed earlier this month.

“I hope other survivors watching this or reading this will find the courage in themselves to come forward,” Sakoda said.

Joseph George, Hoey’s attorney, said he is representing other victims of Gutierrez and last week filed a lawsuit on behalf of three victims against the Oakland Diocese, alleging that it knew about decades of abuse by a monsignor there and did nothing.

It’s not just a few “bad apples,” George emphasized Wednesday. “It’s an institutional failure.”

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