April 01, 2005

Millville man files suit, claims abuse by priests

CAMDEN (NJ)
Courier Post

Friday, April 1, 2005

By RENEE WINKLER
Courier-Post Staff
CAMDEN

The Diocese of Camden ignored priests who sexually abused young boys, a Millville man claims in a lawsuit.

Darren K. Leibow, 28, alleges he was sexually assaulted between 1986 and 1992, when he was an altar boy at Our Lady of the Lakes mission church in Collings Lake. He says he repressed the memories because of threats by one of the former priests, James R. Ryan, who is now dead.

The lawsuit, filed this week in Superior Court in Camden, lists as defendants the diocese, present and former bishops, one former priest and the estates of two others. In addition to Ryan, individual clergy named in the lawsuit are John P. Kelly, also deceased, and Timothy E. Pisik, who served a state prison term for sexual assault.

Leibow is represented by Edward J. Ross, whose law firm handled the 1994 civil cases against the diocese.

The earlier lawsuits, filed by men who claimed they were sexually assaulted by 15 Camden area priests, were dismissed because they were filed too late. However, the diocese paid $880,000 to those individual plaintiffs.

Posted by kshaw at April 1, 2005 05:17 AM