ANCHORAGE (AK)
Anchorage Daily News
By LISA DEMER
Anchorage Daily News
Published: October 12, 2005
Last Modified: October 12, 2005 at 02:47 AM
Former Anchorage Catholic priest Frank Murphy is accused in a new lawsuit of sexually abusing a boy numerous times years ago.
As Monsignor Francis Murphy, he tried at least twice to rape the boy and took nude photographs of him, said Anchorage attorney Ken Roosa. He filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Anchorage Superior Court on behalf of the plaintiff, now in his 30s, who is called Joseph Doe in the suit.
Murphy was a popular and charismatic priest in the Archdiocese of Anchorage from the 1960s to 1985. That's when his superiors suddenly ordered him to an alcoholic rehabilitation center for priests in the Lower 48 as police were investigating him for sexual misconduct, the Daily News reported in 2003.
The newspaper revealed Murphy as an alcoholic who collected pornography and was sexually attracted to boys. He permanently moved to Boston later in 1985 when police said they'd arrest him at the airport if he returned, the newspaper reported.
The new lawsuit seeks damages against Murphy, the Archdiocese of Anchorage, the Archdiocese of Boston and the Missionary Society of St. James the Apostle, the group that the lawsuit says brokered the arrangement that sent him from Boston to Anchorage.