Ray Mouton, former Lafayette attorney who fought Catholic Church cover-ups, has died
Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2026 1:19 pm
https://www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/ne ... 5.amp.html
Ray Mouton, a former Lafayette attorney who defended Acadiana pedophile priest Gilbert Gauthe in the 1980s and later worked to expose cover-ups by the Catholic Church, died in a New Orleans area hospital Thursday at the age of 78.
Gauthe is believed to be the first priest in the United States accused, prosecuted and convicted of child sex abuse.
The case preceded the Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” series that exposed wide-ranging pedophilia in the Catholic Church and the church’s cover-up.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette in 1984 hired Mouton to defend Gauthe, who admitted he sexually abused at least 34 children, many of them from small churches in rural Vermilion Parish.
Court records show he pleaded guilty to 11 counts each of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, crimes against nature and pornography involving juveniles.