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 News from Around Banderas Bay | March 2006 
Thomas White Sued for Alleged Sexual Abuse in SF
 Bay City News
| | A new civil lawsuit against Thomas White, 70, was filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco this week. |
A San Francisco financier who faces criminal charges of so-called "sexual tourism" has been sued in federal court by three young Mexican men who claim he sexually abused them at his villa in Puerto Vallarta in the mid-1990s.
The new civil lawsuit against Thomas White, 70, was filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco this week.
White, who was extradited from Thailand to Mexico last year, is currently on trial in Mexico on criminal charges of raping a boy.
He also faces U.S. criminal charges pending in federal court in San Francisco. Those charges, filed under a statute known as the sexual tourism law, accuse him of conspiring to travel to Mexico and Thailand with the intent of engaging in illegal sexual acts with minors.
White was previously sued in two other civil lawsuits by alleged sexual abuse victims.
One, filed in San Francisco Superior Court by two Central Valley men, has been settled and the terms are confidential.
The other, filed in federal court by 20 Mexican youths, had a settlement approved by a trial judge but White is now appealing it, according to David Replogle, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.
The three plaintiffs in the suit filed this week are aged 18, 19 and 20. They claim that White met them on the beaches and streets of Puerto Vallarta and then sexually abused them at his villa when they were homeless boys between the ages of 9 and 12.
The 18-year-old plaintiff alleges that he encountered White again and was raped by him when they were both placed in the same prison in Ixtapa, near Puerto Vallarta, in September 2005.
The lawsuit says the youth was 17 at the time, but was temporarily placed in an adult facility by mistake.
The suit seeks unspecified financial compensation to be determined at a trial.
Geoffrey Rotwein, a lawyer for White, said, "Mr. White will vigorously defend against the allegations in the complaint. He denies any wrongdoing."
Replogle alleged, "Mr. White abused many children. The latest incident seems to show that he still doesn't appreciate the fact that what he did was very wrong."
The lawsuit is based on claims of civil violations of the sexual tourism law and infliction of emotional distress. |
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