MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald
BY WANDA J. DeMARZO AND JAY WEAVER
wdemarzo@herald.com
After settling a $50,000 sexual-abuse claim against the Rev. Neil Doherty, the Archdiocese of Miami kept the priest in a Broward parish where he allegedly doped and raped a different boy over a five-year period, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
The suit, which seeks $25 million in damages, offers evidence that church leaders were aware of earlier sex-abuse allegations against Doherty, yet apparently did nothing to protect children from him.
The archdiocese's knowledge of Doherty's past pedophilia surfaced in a 2003 memorandum by the Broward State Attorney's Office in which a sex-crimes prosecutor disclosed a 1994 settlement with a student who had been enrolled at Chaminade High School in Hollywood decades earlier.
Now retired, Doherty, 62, could not be reached for comment. He worked for the archdiocese for three decades and was placed on administrative leave in April 2002.