Montgomery County (web|news) police have charged a New York City priest with child abuse for incidents that allegedly occurred in 2001 and 2002 in Germantown.

Police say the Rev. Aaron Joseph Cote surrendered to them Tuesday night. He is charged with custodian child abuse and is being held on $250,000 bond.

Originally when the allegation surfaced, police in Germantown said they didn't have enough evidence to bring charges so the priest was transferred to a parish in Rhode Island.

A 21-year-old man told investigators that Cote, now 56, counseled him when the alleged victim attended Mother Seton parish in Germantown in 2001 when Cote was serving part time as youth minister.

The alleged victim, then 14 years old, says Cote took him to an apartment in Germantown on several occasions and engaged in inappropriate sexual activity and inappropriately touched the youth. The alleged abuse continued for about a year.

The parents of the victim, Brandon Rains, became advocates against abuse and in 2005, filed a civil suit against both the Dominican Order to which Cote belonged and against the Washington Archdiocese.

The suit was settled in 2007 for 1.2 million dollars, paid fully by the Dominican Order and under the settlement, the abuse victim agrees to release the Washington Archdiocese from any future liability.

As a press conference, Becky Lanni from S.N.A.P., Survivors Networks of those Abused by Priests, said the church must do better, insisting the incident was not isolated. She cited allegations that after he left Maryland, Cote abused two boys from Massachusetts. "These boys, when they were abused, were less than five. Today our society is safer because of the criminal charges filed against Father Cote."

In a statement from the Washington Archdiocese, officials said they immediately reported Cote to authorities when the Maryland allegations first came to their attention in 2003. "The Archdiocese of Washington had no knowledge of any prior wrongdoing by Cote before accepting him for ministry."