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Yankees great and Baseball Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera and his wife Clara are facing a shocking lawsuit alleging the couple covered up the sexual abuse of a minor at their Rye, New York, home and at a summer camp connected with their church.
The bombshell lawsuit, which was viewed by The Post, was filed last week in State Supreme Court in Westchester County and alleges the Riveras failed to act after learning that a young girl linked to their Refuge of Hope church in New Rochelle was sexually abused.
“Our lawsuit alleges that Mariano and Clara Rivera had a duty to protect our client and missed the opportunity to save her from the harms of sexual abuse,” Adam Horowitz of Horowitz Law, one of the lawyers representing the victim, said in a statement provided to The Post.
The Post’s request for comment to a representative of Rivera regarding the amended complaint went unanswered.
The plaintiff, referred to as Jane Doe, attended a summer internship in 2018 at Clara’s suggestion at the Ignite Life Center in Gainesville, Florida, where alleged abuse by an older girl, who was a minor at the time, took place.
Doe claims she was repeatedly sexually abused in the camp’s dormitory and shower, with the older girl “fondling and penetrating” Doe’s breasts, buttocks and genitals.
Mariano and Clara Rivera later traveled down to the Ignite Life Center in Gainesville after Jane Doe’s mother expressed “she was concerned for Jane A Doe’s safety at the summer camp,” the suit states.
The mother was said to have been “assured” that Clara would look into her concerns and “respond accordingly.”
However, the suit claims, that when the Riveras made the trip, where they “learned or should have learned information” about the sexual abuse taking place, they “each separately isolated and intimated Jane Doe to remain silent about her abuse” in order to “avoid causing trouble” for both church organizations.
The suit states the girl returned to New York after the conclusion of the internship and continued to attend services at Refuge of Hope.
A separate alleged incident of sexual abuse occurred in August 2018 at the Rivera’s then-residence on Brook View Lane in Rye, New York, during a barbecue for children of the Refuge of Hope church, with no parents invited to the event.
The older girl, who allegedly abused the victim earlier that same year, was invited and “once again sexually abused” Jane Doe “engaging in acts that would constitute a sexual offense under Article 130 of the New York Penal Law,” the suit stated.
The litigation also alleges that the girl had been sexually abused by the adult son of an associate pastor at the church.
Ruben Tavarez Jr., the son of Ruben Tavarez Sr., allegedly abused her in or around late 2021 and into 2022 and “continued to contact her to engage in graphic electronic communications,” according to a post by Horowitz Law on its website.
The Riveras “falsely promoted their activities and premises as being safe, moral, and otherwise free of a risk of harm when it knew or should have known otherwise,” the lawsuit stated.
Rivera pitched for the Yankees from 1995 to 2013 and recorded 652 career saves while winning five World Series titles with the Bronx Bombers.
He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2019.
If you or someone you know has been affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 800-4224453 or text BEGIN to that number.
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