"Mr. Rios and I were in his rectory when he put a gun to his head in front of me," she wrote in her declaration. "As I started to cry in shock, I asked him what he was doing and he said to me. 'Either I'm going to die or you are or we both are.' Due to his past as a gang member and the gangster friends he hangs out with, I'm afraid for my safety and for my family."
She said his guns are "accessible" and he has previously threatened to kill her. She said she feared "retaliation" when "he finds out about the diocese knowing the truth about him."
A court hearing is scheduled for Jan. 25. However, Selma police said they have not received any crime reports related to the restraining order.
In November 2019, an 800-year-old relic of St. Albertus Magnus disappeared from the church Rios led sometime between two Sunday morning Masses.
CNA contacted the Diocese of Fresno, which declined to make further comment.
Rios' name came up in police reports regarding child pornography allegations against another priest, Father Robert Gamel. According to a police report, Gamel told Rios that he had seen nude photographs on the internet showing a boy at the church. Rios warned him that such photos were considered child pornography and looking at them had legal consequences, the Bakersfield, Calif.-based Eyewitness News television show reported in March 2016.
Rios is not otherwise mentioned in news reports about the case.
Gamel was arrested in 2014 and in 2016 he pleaded no contest to one felony count of possession of child pornography on his computer. Gamel allegedly contacted the boy while at the church, gave him money for clothes and instructed him on what kind to wear.
There are about 1.2 million Catholics in the Fresno diocese, out of about 2.9 million people, including over 140 diocesan priests.