Suit Accusing Priest of Molesting Youth Settled : Abuse: Cleric who served at Orange County parish admits in letter submitted to court that he molested youth and other altar boys. Plaintiff, 27, says he suppressed memories of events until 1990.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange has settled a lawsuit brought by a man who charged that a local priest molested him for seven years, beginning when he was a 10-year-old altar boy, the victim’s attorney said this week.

The terms of the settlement were sealed by a judge at the request of the diocese, and church officials declined comment Friday.

The suit, filed in 1991, charged that beginning in 1974, Father Eleuterio Ramos--then a priest at the Immaculate Heart of Mary church in Santa Ana--plied the altar boy with alcohol, R-rated movies and adult magazines and then committed sex acts on him while he was drunk or asleep.

In court papers, attorneys for the diocese have consistently denied that the priest molested the boy or any others.

But in an extraordinary undated letter to the boy that was submitted with court documents, Ramos admitted molesting him and other boys of unspecified ages. And in depositions, Ramos admitted having sex with the boy and taking nude photographs of him--after the boy reached the age of 18.

“We’re satisfied with the result,” said Werner R. Meissner, attorney for the victim, who had asked for $350,000 in damages. “But we shouldn’t have had to go through this litigation to get it.”

The former altar boy, who is now 27 and a resident of Tustin, told The Times this week that he repressed his memory of the incidents until 1990, when they came out during alcohol counseling. Ramos cannot be charged criminally because the statute of limitations long ago expired, but a recent California law extends the statute of limitations for civil suits from the time a repressed memory surfaces.

Ramos is the sixth Orange County cleric charged or sued over the past five years for allegedly committing sexual improprieties with minors. The Tustin man’s lawsuit was settled in October, 1992, four months before Father Richard T. Coughlin, a prominent Orange County priest who founded an internationally known boys chorus, was suspended from his priestly duties amid allegations that he sexually molested five youths 10 to 30 years ago.

This week, the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled in an Orange County civil case involving another priest charged with sexual misconduct that diocese officials are obligated to warn parishioners if they have reason to believe that sexual abuse has occurred.

In the lawsuit and accompanying depositions, the boy and others also charged that diocesan officials were warned by at least three other people--a parent, a Catholic school principal and another priest--that Ramos was behaving inappropriately with a number of boys.

According to court documents, the molestations began in the Immaculate Heart of Mary rectory in 1974, when the boy stayed there to assist with a wedding ceremony the following morning. Later, the suit charged, Ramos took him to area motels, as well as on overnight camping trips and visits to Las Vegas and Tijuana.

Included in the court record are suggestive and romantically worded notes and cards. In one letter in court documents, Ramos admits molesting the Tustin youth and other altar boys.

“Why the molestation?” Ramos wrote. “As best I can presently understand, it is a complication of mental, emotional and physical problems and illnesses all complicated by alcoholism.

“Were you the only one violeated? (sic)” Ramos continued. “No.”

Ramos also claimed in the letter that he was “a victim of physical, sexual, mental and emotional abuse as a child and adolescent” and offered to help the youth undo psychological damage he had caused.

But Ramos contended in the deposition that the nude photos were taken after the boy reached the age of 18. He refused to discuss any sexual activity or photography that might have occurred before the Tustin man or other altar boys reached adulthood.

Ramos’ last known assignment was with a church in Tijuana and he is listed as being on “inactive leave” in the 1993 diocese directory.

In an interview, the 27-year-old Tustin man--now a graduate student in psychology--said that when the first incident with Ramos occurred, he had no sexual experience and felt the molestation was his fault. He said he was raised in a devout immigrant family and educated in Catholic schools.

At the time, the man said, he was “too afraid, too ashamed, too embarrassed to do anything about what happened,” or to inform members of his family.