Yankees icon Mariano Rivera and wife Clara at center of explosive sexual assault trial

Yankees great and Baseball Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera and his wife, Clara, face a shocking lawsuit alleging the couple covered up the sexual abuse of a minor at their home in Rye, New York, and at a summer camp linked to their church.

The explosive lawsuit, which was viewed by The Post, was filed last week in state Supreme Court in Westchester County and alleges that the Riveras failed to act after learning that a young girl linked to their Refuge of Hope church in New Rochelle had been sexually assaulted.

“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 attorneys representing the victim, said in a press release provided. at the Post Office.

The Post’s request for comment from a representative for Rivera regarding the amended complaint went unanswered.

The plaintiff, known as Jane Doe, attended a summer internship in 2018, at Clara’s suggestion, at the Ignite Life Center in Gainesville, Florida, where alleged abuse allegedly took place by an older girl, then a minor.

Doe claims she was sexually assaulted multiple times in the camp’s dorm and shower, with the older girl “fondling and penetrating” Doe’s breasts, buttocks and genitals.

Mariano and Clara Rivera then went to the Ignite Life Center in Gainesville after Jane Doe’s mother expressed “that she was concerned about Jane A Doe’s safety at summer camp,” the suit states.

The mother was reportedly “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 ongoing sexual abuse, they “each separately isolated and ordered Jane Doe to remain silent about her abuse” in order to “avoid causing problems” for the two ecclesial organizations.

The lawsuit says the girl returned to New York after the internship ended and continued to attend services at the Refuge of Hope.

Another alleged incident of sexual abuse occurred in August 2018 at Rivera’s residence on Brook View Lane in Rye, New York, during a barbecue for children of Refuge of Hope Church, without any parent is invited to the event.

The older girl, who allegedly abused the victim earlier the same year, was invited and “once again sexually assaulted ‘Jane Doe’ by engaging in acts that would constitute a sexual offense under section 130 of New York Criminal Law,” the suit states.

The litigation also alleges that the girl was sexually assaulted by the adult son of an associate pastor at the church.

Ruben Tavarez Jr., Ruben Tavarez Sr.’s son, allegedly abused her in late 2021 and into 2022 and “continued to contact her to engage in graphic electronic communications,” according to a Horowitz Law article on its website.

The Riveras “falsely promoted their operations and premises as safe, moral and otherwise free from risk of harm when they knew or should have known otherwise,” the lawsuit states.

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 this number.