Ray Mouton, key figure in exposing Catholic clergy abuse crisis, dies at 78

Ray Mouton has died

Ray Mouton, a former Lafayette attorney who defended Acadiana pedophile priest Gilbert Gauthe in the 1980s and later worked to expose cover-ups by the Catholic Church, died in a New Orleans area hospital Thursday at 78 years of age, our media partners at The Advocate report.Gauthe is believed to be the first priest in the United States accused, prosecuted and convicted of child sex abuse in the United States.The case preceded the Boston Globes S…

Ray Mouton, key figure in exposing clergy sex abuse, dies at 78

LAFAYETTE, La. (NEWS 15) — Ray Mouton, a central figure in uncovering the clergy sex abuse crisis in Lafayette, has passed away. He was 78 years old. Mouton was the defense attorney for Gilbert Gauthe, the first priest in the…

Ray Mouton, key figure in exposing Catholic clergy abuse crisis, dies at 78

Lafayette lawyer went from defending pedophile priest Gilbert Gauthe to crusading to expose breadth of US church's coverup

Attorney and author F. Ray Mouton has died

F. Ray Mouton, the Lafayette attorney who helped expose a church sexual abuse scandal that would spread across the globe, died in Jefferson, La., on Thursday. As a young, successful attorney in Lafayette, Mouton in 1984 took on the defense of local priest Gilbert Gauthe, who admitted to sexually abusing 37 children and served 20 years for his crimes. What followed was an unraveling of unforeseen proportions, exposing the systematic abuse — and s…