Mexican police arrested Jose Raúl Gonzalez Lara, a biological son of
the late Legion of Christ founder Fr. Marcial Maciel, on Monday on
charges of attempted extortion against the Legion.
Gonzalez Lara was taken from his home in Cuernavaca and jailed in
Penal de Barrientos in Tlalnepantla, a rough industrial suburb in the
northern part of sprawling Mexico City.
Although he posted bail, he is
reportedly still being held in custody.
CNN broadcaster Carmen Aristegui wrote in an email that authorities confirmed the arrest at 5 p.m.
"No one has officially recognized that he was arrested at 7:30 a.m.," said Aristegui, the author of Marcial Maciel: Historia de un Criminal.
Gonzalez Lara, 33, married with a 1-year-old son, works in a physical
fitness center.
In 2010, St. Paul, Minn., attorney Jeff Anderson sued the Legionaries in Connecticut,
where the order has its American headquarters, stating that Maciel
abused Gonzalez Lara in several U.S. locations as he was growing up, and
that the order knew the founder had a history of abusing seminarians.
In 2006, the Vatican after an investigation ordered Maciel to a life
of prayer and repentance.
He died in 2008 in Jacksonville, Fla., in the
presence of his 23-year-old daughter, Normita, and her mother, Norma
Hilda Banos, Mexican nationals who had established residency in Spain.
Gonzalez Lara is the older of Maciel's two sons from a relationship with a second woman in Mexico, Blanca Gutierrez Lara.
His arrest marks a bizarre twist by which an arrest in Mexico would appear to bolster a legal defense in Connecticut.
On Oct. 5, 2011, the Hartford, Conn., law firm Robinson & Cole
filed a counter-claim for the Legion, charging that Gonzalez Lara used
extortion, seeking $26 million from the Legion in Mexico.
The arrest is particularly odd because the events in question were widely reported in the news media two and a half years ago.
The counter-claim defense in Hartford cited statutes of foreign law.
"Raúl acted illicitly and/or against good customs in violation of
Articles 7.145 of the Civil Code of the State of Mexico and 7.149 of the
Civil Code of the State of Mexico when he willfully and knowingly used
extortionate means to attempt to obtain $26 million from the Legionaries
of Christ by threatening to cause embarrassment, hatred, ridicule and
contempt through public allegations of sexual abuse," states the 2011
document filed by attorney Elizabeth R. Leong.
The document alleges that Gonzalez Lara engaged in a conspiracy with
Mexico City attorney Jose Bonilla after failing to gain a settlement
with the Legionaries for inheritance rights as allegedly promised by the
late Maciel.
"We filed an answer to the counterclaims denying liability and
asserted multiple defenses," New Haven attorney Joel Faxon, the
Connecticut co-counsel on the case, said. "We know that the counterclaim
is a spurious and ineffective effort by the Legion to intimidate and
threaten the plaintiff."
Faxon said the court order for scheduling motions in a summary judgment decision would likely to come in mid- to late 2013.
Whether the criminal arrest of a plaintiff in Mexico will have
bearing on an American lawsuit is unclear. A protective order in
Connecticut has barred discovery findings in the litigation from the
public.
The counter-claim does not mention the role of a Mexican bishop
delegated by Pope Benedict to investigate the Legion who advised
Gonzalez Lara to seek a negotiated settlement.
In a 2010 interview, Gonzalez Lara recounted a sordid history of
abuse by Maciel, with whom he had sporadic encounters growing up,
believing him to be a CIA agent.
Maciel took him to a Vatican Mass as a
boy where he had his photograph taken with John Paul II. When he was
older, he said, Maciel told him he would inherit a $6 million trust.
As
he began resisting the sexual overtures, Maciel in his later years
withdrew from the second family.
Gonzalez Lara, his mother, a younger brother and an older half-brother learned of Maciel's death on TV in 2008.
In 2009, El Mundo, a Spanish daily, reported that Gonzalez
Lara's half-sister, Normita Banos, and her mother received compensation
from Maciel and lived in an upscale Madrid apartment.
Gonzalez wanted
compensation from Maciel's estate.
In that interview, he told NCR that in 2003, Maciel assured
him that Legionary Fr. Alvaro Corcuera -- who would succeed Maciel as
director-general of the order -- and a second priest "were going to look
after us after his death."
He said he called the Legion headquarters in
Mexico City and left messages for both men, to no avail.
In 2009, Gonzalez Lara and his family twice met with the late Mexican
Bishop Ricardo Watty, the Vatican-appointed visitator in the Legion
investigation ordered by Pope Benedict.
Gonzalez Lara said he gave Watty
letters to the pope detailing the abuses to him and his older
half-brother, Omar. They asked to meet with Vatican Secretary of State
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, to no avail.
Watty "showed that he really felt sorry about what happened,"
Gonzalez Lara said.
The bishop arranged for him to meet with Legion Fr.
Carlos Skertchly, an official at the order's Anahuac University in
Mexico City.
A long, circuitous series of meetings ensued, in which
Gonzalez Lara said he provided documents proving Maciel's relationship
and intent of financial support.
His attorney at that time, Jose Bonilla, said in 2010 that a family
trust fund Maciel established turned up empty.
The Legion gave Gonzalez
Lara a copy of a trust they told him was taken away from Normita, the
daughter, in Spain, according to Bonilla.
The same day of the interview with Bonilla, Gonzalez Lara, his mother
and two brothers went public in a radio interview with Aristegui.
The
Legion released a statement on Skertchly's meetings with Gonzalez Lara,
saying the order rebuffed his demand for $26 million for which he had
reputedly promised silence in return.
Bonilla withdrew as legal counsel,
citing professional ethics over a client bargaining silence for money.
In a May 7, 2010, interview with NCR, Gonzalez Lara said he severed ties with Bonilla for giving him poor advice.
The counter-claim in the Connecticut case says that "Raúl, under the
auspices and with the consent of Bonilla" met with Sketcherly. The
Legionaries rebuffed "his extortionate demand."
"It is commonly accepted that neither the police nor the
criminal-justice system are trustworthy or even functional in Mexico,"
American journalist David Lida, author of First Stop in the New World, a book on Mexico City, told NCR.
Penal de Barrientos, where Gonzalez Lara was sent after his arrest,
"was hit with riots in 2006 and 2007," said Lida, who lives in Mexico.
"Last August, a video report showed uniformed guards charging visitors
money before they allowed them inside to see prisoners."
Many officers are looking to supplement their incomes through extortion of the public.
In 2008, a documentary called Presumed Guilty detailed how common it is for innocent people to be arrested, tried and sentenced in Mexico.
"Given that most Mexicans don't trust official institutions, it's not
surprising that people are voicing suspicions that the charges were
trumped up in an attempt to discredit Gonzalez Lara and to salvage the
scant remains of Maciel's reputation," Lida said. "Even if Gonzalez Lara
attempted extortion, most Mexicans would agree that whatever happens,
we are unlikely to know the truth."
Gonzalez Lara posted bail of about $3,600 the night of his arrest but
is thought to still be in custody.
The charge, attempted extortion, was
listed as a misdemeanor, according to Aristegui.