{"id":45496,"date":"2025-05-02T00:34:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T00:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=45496"},"modified":"2025-05-02T00:34:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T00:34:16","slug":"yankees-legend-mariano-rivera-wife-named-as-defendants-in-sexual-abuse-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=45496","title":{"rendered":"Yankees legend Mariano Rivera, wife named as defendants in sexual abuse lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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New York Yankees legend Mariano Rivera and his wife, Clara, are now named as defendants in a sexual abuse lawsuit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Former legendary pitcher of the\u00a0New York Yankees, Mariano Rivera,\u00a0and his wife, Clara, have been named defendants in a\u00a0civil sexual assault lawsuit after their church was connected to the allegations, per ESPN.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit comes from a girl and mother who allege that the girl was sexually abused by an older child at events that \u201cconnect\u201d to the Riveras’ church in Westchester County, New York.<\/p>\n

It was initially filed in January 2025 in the Westchester County Supreme Court. Initially,\u00a0it did not feature\u00a0the Riveras as named defendants, instead naming Refuge of Hope, the church they founded. However, it did accuse them of \u201cfailing to protect the girl.\u201d They are not being charged with any criminal wrongdoing, though.<\/p>\n

Clara Rivera is a senior pastor at Refuge of Hope. The lawsuit also named a limited liability company that reportedly included the Riveras’ former home address before they sold the property in 2022.<\/p>\n

The girl’s attorney, Adam Horowitz, said the Riveras were added as named defendants \u201cafter it was determined they were not connected with the LLC.\u201d He added that the lawsuit \u201clargely remains the same\u201d despite the recent change with the Riveras being named defendants.<\/p>\n

Yankees legend Mariano Rivera and his wife’s response to the sexual abuse lawsuit and allegations<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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In January 2025, Rivera and his wife responded to the allegations. The initial court documents said, \u201cRather 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Riveras responded, claiming they do not tolerate any kind of child abuse. They also alleged that they had not heard about the allegations until four years after they occurred.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe very first time they heard about these allegations was nearly four years after the alleged incident when, in 2022, a New York attorney sent a letter requesting a financial settlement,\u201d the Riveras\u2019 attorney said. \u201cThis was followed by a second letter in 2023 from a different Florida law firm, again requesting a financial settlement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lawsuit, which seeks financial damages for the Riveras\u2019 alleged failure to act on alleged incidents that were never reported to them, is full of inaccurate and misleading statements which we have no doubt will not hold up in a court of law,\u201d they continued.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York Yankees legend Mariano Rivera and his wife, Clara, are now named as defendants in a sexual abuse lawsuit. Former legendary pitcher of the\u00a0New York Yankees,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\nYankees legend Mariano Rivera, wife named as defendants in sexual abuse lawsuit - 24\/7 News America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=45496\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Yankees legend Mariano Rivera, wife named as defendants in sexual abuse lawsuit - 24\/7 News America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"New York Yankees legend Mariano Rivera and his wife, Clara, are now named as defendants in a sexual abuse lawsuit. 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