FORT LAUDERDALE (FL)
WFTV
POSTED: 7:40 am EDT September 7, 2005
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A Roman Catholic priest previously accused of drugging and raping boys throughout his three decades of work in the Archdiocese of Miami faces new allegations of sexual abuse.
A lawsuit filed Tuesday in Broward Circuit Court alleges that the Rev. Neil Doherty sexually abused a boy starting when the child was 9 during the 1990s at Margate's St. Vincent's Church.
Under Florida law, there is no statute of limitations if the victim is under 12. The lawsuit seeks $25 million in damages.
Doherty befriended the boy, now 19, after meeting him at St. Vincent's in the mid-1990s, said Jeffrey Herman, the teen's attorney. The teen is identified in court documents only as John Doe 22.
"The priest told him to start smoking pot (to) curb his aggressive behavior," Herman said Tuesday.
The sexual abuse occurred between 1996 and 2000 while the boy was unconscious or semiconscious after bingeing on drugs and alcohol, the lawsuit claims.
Posted by kshaw at September 7, 2005 07:40 AM