Priest Accused of Molesting Altar Boys Commits Suicide

A Roman Catholic priest who had been accused of molesting Southern California boys over two decades committed suicide in Washington, D.C., police said Saturday.

Father Ted Llanos, 50, killed himself Monday, police spokeswoman Haydee Carter said. She gave no details, citing department policies on suicides.

Llanos was charged last year with sexually molesting five youths--most of them altar boys at the time--while he was assigned to five Southern California churches, beginning in 1973.

In February, a Long Beach Municipal Court judge dismissed the charges because the statute of limitations had expired.

After the charges were dismissed, former altar boys filed a lawsuit alleging that Llanos sexually abused them in the 1970s and that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles covered it up. News of the suicide shocked Donald Steier, the Los Angeles attorney who represented Llanos. Steier said he spoke to Llanos by phone a week ago and detected no sign of depression.

“It is a tragedy for everybody--the people who feel victimized and their families,” Steier said.

“It is a tragedy for him and his family. I hope this brings about some closure.”

When former altar boys began coming forward in 1994 with allegations of abuse, Llanos took a leave of absence from St. Lucy’s in Long Beach and sought treatment at a church facility in Suitland, Md. Llanos served at parishes in Long Beach, Covina, Santa Ana and Los Angeles.