MARYSVILLE (CA)
Sacramento Bee
Bee Metro Staff
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Thursday, August 28, 2003
Two men have sued the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California, alleging they were sexually abused by a Marysville priest in the 1970s and that the church failed to respond when the abuse was reported.In their lawsuit, James Sharpe and Robert Gibbons say they were abused by the Rev. Donald J. West while they were teenage parishioners at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Marysville. They are seeking unspecified damages in the suit filed this week in Sacramento Superior Court.
Sharpe, who lives in Yuba City, says he was 15 years old when the sexual abuse began about 1972. Gibbons, a Minnesota resident, says he was 17 when he was abused about 1978. The two didn’t know each other then.
In 1978, according to the suit, Sharpe’s parents brought the matter to Bishop John Thompson, who did not report the allegations to police.
