A woman filed a lawsuit Sept. 17 against the Archdiocese of Louisville and a St. Matthews parish alleging she was “routinely harassed, assaulted, raped and sodomized” as an employee.
In addition to the Archdiocese, the lawsuit names Our Lady of Lourdes Parish and School, Cesar Barahona and the Rev. David G. Sanchez as defendants, and includes several allegations, including gross negligence, violation of the Kentucky Civil Rights Act and assault.
She also brought claims for negligent hiring/retention and breach of contract against the Archdiocese, Our Lady of Lourdes and Sanchez, as well as battery and false imprisonment against Barahona.
“The Archdiocese of Louisville has perverted ‘precious and sacred trust’ into a mechanism of silencing its victims,” the lawsuit reads. “[The woman] was not the first person to be irrevocably traumatized by the negligence of the Archdiocese of Louisville, and, unless something is done, she will not be the last.”
According to the lawsuit, the woman accepted a position as a janitor at Our Lady of Lourdes around April 2025. Shortly after, Barahona, who was the facilities manager and her direct supervisor, reportedly “started making sexual advances,” beginning with “flirting and winking” before escalating in severity over the next several months.
The lawsuit alleges Barahona regularly forced the woman into the boiler and maintenance room where he sexually assaulted her and forced her to perform oral sex on him on several occasions.
Barahona reportedly threatened the woman by saying she would be fired if she reported the abuse.
In June 2025, the woman told Sanchez, who was the priest at the parish, about the abuse, according to the lawsuit.
“Father Sánchez told [the woman] that he was very good friends with Cesar Barahona and that [she] was lying about her claims,” the lawsuit reads. “Father Sánchez further told [the woman] her family would be threatened should she further report the matter and/or pursue any legal action.”
The last assault allegedly occurred before Barahona left the parish for a “medical procedure.” After Barahona’s departure, the new facilities manager, who had learned of the abuse and encouraged the woman to file a claim with human resources, reported the abuse around October 2025.
In a meeting with human resources, Sanchez reportedly accused the woman of lying but later told her to write down the allegations.
Human resources also suggested the woman make a police report with the St. Matthews Police Department, which was filed Oct. 21, 2025, according to court documents.
The woman was also granted an intrapersonal protective order against Barahona on Nov. 13, 2025, which was later converted to a three-year domestic violence order on Dec. 11, 2025.
Following the hearing, Barahona allegedly offered the woman money in exchanged for dropping the claims against him.
According to the lawsuit, the woman has “furthered suffered obvious retaliation” in connection with speaking out, including allegedly not being compensated for cleaning the entire facility and having her working hours “significantly reduced.”
Our Lady of Lourdes recently announced another priest would fill in “for an indefinite period of time,” the document reads.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Louisville said the organization does not comment on pending litigation.