SCRANTON (PA)
Times Leader
By MARK GUYDISHmguydish@leader.net
SCRANTON – The accused priest was convicted more than a decade ago and is dead. The Diocese of Scranton has had three bishops since the alleged sex abuse occurred. The statute of limitations has expired. The victim moved to Kentucky.
None of which stopped David Irvin, now in his 40s, from filing a federal lawsuit Tuesday contending he was abused at age 6 by the Rev. Robert Caparelli, and that the diocese caused it through a deliberate pattern of “fraudulent representations, concealing criminal activity, obstructing justice” and “evading” liability.
“Mr. Irvin wants to know how this could happen in his church,” attorney Joseph Saunders said during a press conference held Tuesday morning on the steps of the federal courthouse.
The 31-page suit claims Caparelli repeatedly abused Irvin for several years when he lived in Lakeville and attended St. Mary’s Church. The alleged abuse started in 1969. Caparelli was convicted on multiple counts of sexual abuse of minors in the early 1990s. He died in prison in 1994.