March 23, 2005

Suspended Priest Returns To Active Ministry

BOSTON (MA)
TheBostonChannel.com

POSTED: 7:35 am EST March 23, 2005
UPDATED: 7:45 am EST March 23, 2005

BOSTON -- A Revere, Mass., priest cleared of accusations he molested a teenage boy in the early 1980s was returned to active ministry after a church review board examined the case of the Rev. Edward Keohan, officials at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston said.

"After careful review of the information available regarding the complaint, the (archdiocese) review board determined that the allegation was unsubstantiated," the archdiocese said in a statement Tuesday.

Philip D. Moran, a Salem, Mass., lawyer who represented Keohan, said the 72-year-old priest passed a lie detector test, and that members of the accuser's family ultimately disputed the story that the man, who now is 37, had been molested.

Neither Ann Carter, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese, nor Moran knew whether the former administrator of Our Lady of Lourdes in Revere would continue to serve as a priest.

"Father Keohan and I are delighted," Moran said of the church's decision. "He has devoted 45 years of his life to God as a priest, and we feel he was wrongly accused. There was no basis for the accusation."

However Mitchell Garabedian, the Boston lawyer who represented the accuser, said his client received a six-figure settlement from the archdiocese in the case.

Posted by kshaw at March 23, 2005 07:30 AM