Hall Of Fame Yankees Pitcher Mariano Rivera & Wife Clara Sued For Allegedly Covering Up A Child Sex-Abuse Report

by Baila Eve ZismanJanuary 25, 2025, 4:11 pmNews >

Hall-of-Fame Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera and his wife, Clara, were accused of covering up the sexual abuse of a ten-year-old girl at the church they founded, Refuge of Hope.

Rivera and Clara bought the old church in New Rochelle, New York, in 2014, proceeding to renovate it into the Refuge of Hope church.

According to the lawsuit, Rivera and Clara allegedly “isolated and intimidated” a young girl into not saying anything about the abuse she was enduring for fear that the Refuge of Hope would suffer consequences.

The girl, now 17, filed a lawsuit on Jan. 16, seeking unspecified damages for negligent supervision and premises liability.

The girl’s complaint alleges that Clara, who is a pastor at the church, paid for her to go to a summer internship through Ignite Life Center in Florida, which required her to stay in a dormitory with her peers and no adult supervision. The lawsuit details that while at the internship, the girl was sexually assaulted by an older female camper (referred to in the lawsuit as ‘MG’) in both the dorms and the shower. The girl informed her mother of the assault, and her mother reported it back to Clara, who claimed she would investigate – but there was never any follow-up. The Riveras allegedly told the mother that her daughter was “safe and in no danger.”

The lawsuit stated, “Rather than take sufficient action to end the sexual abuse of Jane Doe, the Riveras each separately isolated and intimidated Jane Doe to remain silent about her abuse by ‘MG’ to avoid causing trouble for Refuge of Hope and the Ignite Life Summer Internship.”

The complaint further asserts that the Riveras arranged environments for the abuse to take place again, holding barbecues in which only children were invited and leaving the victim alone with her abuser, despite her previous reports. The lawsuit further accuses the Riveras of handling the allegations internally to “avoid scrutiny, public scandal, and potential financial losses from allegations of child sexual abuse becoming public information.”

The Riveras’ lawyer denounced the allegations in a statement, saying, “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.”