MAINE
Portland Press Herald
By JOHN RICHARDSON, Portland Press Herald Writer
Patricia Butkowski has only a few clear memories about being abused by the Rev. Lawrence Sabatino.
In one memory, she crouches on the floor of the priest's car, crying as he pulls up to her family's house in Lewiston. She is 6 years old.
In another, she is 9 and asks her mother why her name is on a bottle of pills. The medicine is for her nightmares and helps her sleep, her mother replies.
Butkowski's mother later filled in some of the gaps about that day in 1958 when Trish came home crying: The family's doctor said Trish was bruised and swollen and had been sexually molested.
Her parents went to police and then to the Roman Catholic bishop in Portland. They felt assured that Sabatino would be kept away from other children.
He wasn't. Instead, the young priest was transferred to a parish in Portland, where he had plenty of access to young girls.