The plaintiff claimed that Reverend David Espitia, pastor of St. Ann's Parish in Colorado City, Texas, had sexually abused him from 1994, when he was age eight, to 2002 and that the diocese covered up the crimes.
[10] The 2018 Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report on sexual abuse by clergy included a section on the transfer of Reverend Thomas C. Kelley, a priest from the Diocese of Erie in Pennsylvania, to the Diocese of San Angelo, despite a record of sexual abuse of young men.
Five men aged 28 to 25 accused Kelley of sexual advances either at a high school or in the seminary; one man received a financial settlement from the Diocese of Erie.
Pfeifer had a conversation in 1995 with Erie Bishop Donald Trautman in which they discussed Kelley's record and his transfer.
There were no allegations of abuse filed against Kelley during his ten years in the Diocese of San Angelo; he died in 2005 Pfeifer has refused to comment on the story.