Girl's report about priest didn't worry therapist

Stockton, California --

A therapist on Tuesday said the "funny feelings" a child reported about her dealings with an associate priest at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Modesto did not raise any red flags for sexual abuse.

But Yvonne Marie McLoughlin, who testified during a trial in San Joaquin County Superior Court, also said she shredded her notes from an interview with the 10-year-old girl.

She said she recopied her notes after she received a subpoena demanding any reports on the matter, but destroyed the originals, because they were illegible.

A lawsuit brought by the girl's mother claims that Arakal twice touched the breast of the woman's eldest daughter, now 17, continuing after she asked him to stop. The mother also claims that Arakal asked her youngest daughter, now 11, to reach into his pants pocket and pull out a priest's collar.

Read the article at The Modesto Bee dated March 24, 2005

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