A former Germantown Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old altar boy will serve no prison time under a plea deal reached with prosecutors.
Instead, the deal between the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office and the Rev. Aaron Joseph Cote calls for 10 years probation, five of which are supervised.
Cote, 57, also is supposed to undergo a sex offender evaluation and complete any recommended counseling, court records show. A judge has signed off on the plea deal, in which Cote did not admit to any wrongdoing, Cote’s lawyer said.
Cote, who is now a priest at St. Vincent Ferrer Church in New York, turned himself into county police more than a year ago. Cote served as a part-time youth minister at Mother Seton Parish in Germantown from 1999 to 2002 and worked in religious education at Bethesda’s St. Jane Frances de Chantal Parish from 1997 to 1999.
The former altar boy, Brandon Rains, is now 22.
Police said Rains’ parents had encouraged their son to seek counseling from Cote for a drug and alcohol problem. But for a year when the two were alone, Cote would put on pornography and masturbate in front of, and eventually with, Rains, police said.
Cote also once touched the boy’s genitals and gave him money to buy marijuana, police said.
“In the fall of 2001, Father Cote told Rains that he had to be careful because a lot of priests were getting into trouble and instructed Rains not to tell anyone about their relationship,” police records said.
The Dominican Order paid Rains $1.2 million after he filed a civil suit in 2005. Rains’ lawyer, Jeff Anderson, said the order knew about other allegations of child abuse committed by Cote ranging back 20 years and taking place in five states and two countries.
Cote did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Last year, Cote was sued by the family of two Springfield, Mass., brothers whose parents said he molested them in 2003 when they were less than 5 years old.
