Man describes years of childhood sex abuse by priest — then grants him forgiveness
Sitting on the witness stand in the San Luis Obispo County courthouse, Patricio said his priest would sometimes pray before molesting him.
“He would speak directly to God, asking for strength,” Patricio said in Spanish through a court interpreter on Thursday.
Patricio, who went by his middle name to protect his identity, gave a detailed, daylong testimony of what he described as years of childhood abuse he and his brothers suffered at the hands of Rev. Theodore Gabrielli.
Thursday’s preliminary hearing was the first time evidence was presented to the public in the sexual assault case against the Jesuit priest.
Gabrielli, 62, is charged with 35 counts of forced oral copulation, sexual abuse, forcible lewd acts, aggravated sexual assault and sodomy by force that allegedly took place across multiple California counties, including in San Luis Obispo County. All of the charges are for acts allegedly committed against children under the age of 15 between 1991 and 2010.
Gabrielli, who was arrested on June 12, is accused of sexually assaulting the boys at his parents’ house in Los Osos over the course of about eight years. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Four alleged victims have come forward against the priest: Patricio and two of his brothers, Oscar and Felix, who are from Mexico, and a fourth victim, Steven, from San Jose, California.
When he was a child, Patricio said his family became close with Gabrielli, and the priest was allowed to take the three boys with him to many places across Mexico and the United States, including to San Luis Obispo County. Steven was also allegedly permitted to travel with Gabrielli.
It was on those trips where the abuse took place, Patricio said.
At one point in his testimony, Patricio estimated Gabrielli molested him 30 to 50 times.
“It was a secret for many years,” he said.
Six of Gabrielli’s friends and family members attended to support him from the courtroom gallery as Patricio testified on Thursday.
Gabrielli, who is being held in jail without bail, sat handcuffed next to his attorney Ilan Funke-Bilu. He was allowed to have one hand removed from the cuffs to take notes during the hearing.
All in all, Patricio’s testimony and cross-examination lasted around four hours spread out over the course of the day, wrapping up just before the close of the court at 4:30 p.m.
Patricio laid out the many instances of alleged abuse in detail — as well as his conflicting feelings toward Gabrielli, the man who in many ways was like a father to him.
“Nobody is good all the time or bad all the time,” Patricio said. “I love him and I will always love his good side. That I will always hold close to me.”
The preliminary hearing was continued to April 9, with more remote testimony to be heard from Oscar and Steven before Judge Jesse Marino can determine whether there is enough evidence to go to trial.
Man forgives priest he says abused him
Now 43, Patricio was only 8 or 9 years old when he met Gabrielli at the Casa de los Pobres — which translates to the House of the Poor — a charity in Tijuana, Mexico, his family would frequent for meals and spiritual support, he said.
Gabrielli — or Ted, as Patricio called him — was always at the House of the Poor greeting people and handing out food, Patricio said. The priest quickly became a close friend to the family, Patricio said.
Gabrielli visited their house “very often” from then on, Patricio said. Patricio said he would characterize their relationship as “very good” and added that he was “happy he was my friend.”
Felix and Oscar were often invited to sleep over at the House of the Poor where Gabrielli lived, but as the youngest of his brothers, Patricio wasn’t yet included, he said.
The first time he was invited to a sleep over in the early 1990s, he was “excited to finally be a part of the group,” Patricio said.
That was the first time Patricio remembered Gabrielli molesting them, he said.
“When it was time for us to go to bed, he asked all of us to take our clothes off to get naked,” Patricio said. “Of course, I thought it was weird, but my older brothers did it and so there was something weird, but I didn’t think anything bad yet.”
The boys slept on blankets on the floor with no bed, and Gabrielli joined them, Patricio said.
“It wasn’t spoken about,” he said. “It was just that it was time for bed. We took — had to take our clothes off. He took off his clothes, and he went to bed with us, all of us naked.”
Then, Gabrielli would press his naked body against Patricio and his brothers and touch “whatever his hands could reach,” he said.
Sometimes, Gabrielli would masturbate next to him in bed or “try to get inside of me,” Patricio said.
“You pretend to be asleep, but you push him, and he would leave you alone, and then he would go with a different brother,” Patricio said.
Patricio said Gabrielli would often tell him he loved him like a son while the alleged abuse was taking place.
“Remember, at this time, we’re more than friends. We’re family,” Patricio said to the court.
What started with the sleepovers at the charity continued for years as Patricio and his brothers began traveling to the United States with Gabrielli, including to Los Osos, he said Thursday.
When Patricio was 13 or 14 years old, Gabrielli took him and his brothers to Disneyland in Los Angeles for the first time, he said. He remembered being very excited.
Gabrielli came up behind them in their shared hotel room there, too, already naked, Patricio said.
“If you had clothes on, he would strip you under the blankets and he would hug you and press on you,” he said.
Patricio traveled with Gabrielli every summer and winter break, spending months on end with him, he said.
The abuse continued during all of these times, he said.
“If there was an opportunity for him and I to be alone, it would happen,” Patricio said. “It would happen in many places.”
Sometimes, Patricio would spend the entire summers in Los Angeles helping Gabrielli with the church, or the priest would find him jobs in construction or cleaning offices, he said. Other times, Patricio would spend the summer in Los Osos at Gabrielli’s parents house, he said. He traveled with Gabrielli until he was 15 years old.
Gabrielli got into bed with Patricio “many times in his parents’ home,” he said.
“I want to be very specific about what would happen,” Patricio said in Spanish. “I mean,” he said in English, pausing for a long moment, proceeding again in Spanish:
“Nighttime would come. The floor was wood. You could hear his footsteps in the hallway walking from one room to another outside in the hallway. At some moment, he would enter the room, breathing heavily, sometimes crying, sometimes praying. Sometimes he would hug you, and he would do that, and sometimes he would just simply leave. And so you would pretend to be asleep, waiting for that night to be one of those nights, where he would just leave.”
Patricio went to law enforcement in 2023
For Patricio, the alleged abuse was, and still is, confusing for him.
Patricio called Gabrielli in 2023 to warn him that “he needed to be careful, because I didn’t want anything to happen to him,” even though Patricio was planning to speak with law enforcement, he said.
“Even now, I’m conflicted in doing this stuff because I don’t want anything to happen to him,” Patricio said.
Gabrielli continued to have a close relationship with the family, including baptizing Patricio’s daughter in 2018 and frequently visiting his brother’s house in Tijuana to spend time with his young sons, Patricio’s nephews.
When asked by Funke-Bilu why he did contact law enforcement, Patricio said “this we’re doing to protect our nephews and to heal and leave everything behind.”
The last time Patricio said he contacted Gabrielli was in April 2025, a few months before Gabrielli’s arrest. Patricio had just returned from a spiritual retreat, he said. He called the priest to forgive him.
“I brought a reading,” Patricio said. “I read it. The reading spoke about forgiveness. I told him that I was grateful to him. I asked him if he had been hurt, if anyone had hurt him when he was younger. He said no, and so I asked him, then, why had he hurt me? Because I understood that only hurt people hurt others. When he responded to my questions of why he had done that to me, he cried, and he said, ‘I’m sorry, I thought you were sleeping.’”
If you or someone you know are a survivor of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-4673. The hotline offers a range of free services including confidential support from a trained staff member, help finding a local health facility, legal and medical advice and referrals for long-term support.
Survivor support and resources are also available through Lumina Alliance at luminaalliance.org or their Crisis and Information Line at 805-545-8888.
This story was originally published February 28, 2026 at 10:00 AM.
