Yankees legend Mariano Rivera and wife slam ‘completely false’ allegations they covered up child sexual abuse

Yankees legend Mariano Rivera and his wife, Clara Rivera, vehemently denied allegations that they covered up the sexual abuse of a child.

On Thursday, the couple’s legal team responded to Jane Doe’s bombshell lawsuit, in which she claimed they were complicit in the sexual abuse of a minor in their Rye, NY, home and at a summer camp connected with their Christian church in 2018.

“Mariano and Clara Rivera do not tolerate child abuse of any kind and allegations that they knew about or failed to act on reports of child abuse are completely false,” Joseph A. Ruta, attorney for the Riveras, said in a statement.

Ruta claimed the couple didn’t hear about the alleged abuse until “nearly four years after the alleged incident, when in 2022 a New York attorney sent a letter requesting a financial settlement.”

“This was followed by a second letter in 2023, from a different Florida law firm, again requesting a financial settlement,” the statement continued.

“The lawsuit, which seeks financial damages for the Riveras’ alleged failure to act on alleged incidents that were never reported to them, is full of inaccurate and misleading statements which we have no doubt will not hold up in a court of law.”

Mariano, known as the “Sandman,” played 19 seasons for the New York Yankees, from 1995 until his retirement in 2013.

Following his MLB career, the 55-year-old became the lead pastor of the Refuge of Hope Church in New Rochelle alongside his wife, who oversaw the day-to-day operations.

In the lawsuit, filed last week, Jane Doe alleged that she was sexually abused by an older girl while doing a summer internship with the Ignite Life Center, which was affiliated with Refuge of Hope.

The then-11-year-old claimed Clara convinced her mother to allow her to travel to the camp, which was in Gainesville, Fla.

However, she alleged that an older girl, identified as “MG,” “repeatedly” sexually abused her in the dorm and shower “by fondling and penetrating [her] breasts, buttocks and genitals against [her] will.”

The anonymous teen allegedly told her mom about the assault and she took the information to Clara, per the lawsuit.

The plaintiff alleged that the Riveras traveled down to see her and “each separately isolated and intimated [her] to remain silent about her abuse.”

She claimed the couple wanted to “avoid causing trouble” for their church “rather than take sufficient action to end the sexual abuse.”

After the internship ended, Doe alleged that the Riveras invited all the summer campers to their home in New York (without their parents), where “MG once again sexually abused the minor,” according to the suit.

Doe claimed an adult male youth leader, who was the son of a Refuge of Hope associate pastor, also sexually abused her in 2021.

The plaintiff, now 17, claims the couple did nothing to “protect” her and “falsely promoted their activities and premises as being safe, moral and otherwise free of a risk of harm when [they] knew or should have known otherwise.”

Doe is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.

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 that number.