PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Morning Call
By Maryclaire Dale
The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA | -- A Navy retiree sued a Roman Catholic diocese Tuesday over a decades-old priest sex-abuse claim, saying his years of military service stopped the clock on the statute of limitations.
David Irvin, 41, of Georgetown, Ky., said he was abused for four years starting in 1969 -- when he was 6 -- by the late Rev. Robert Caparelli of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Old Forge, in northeastern Pennsylvania.
The abuse took place at the home of Caparelli's parents, who lived near Irvin's family, the suit alleges.
Caparelli died in about 1994 in prison, where he was serving a two- to five-year sentence for sexually abusing a teenage altar boy.
Irvin alleges that Diocese of Scranton received complaints as early as 1968 that Caparelli had been abusing altar boys, but nonetheless transferred him from parish to parish until 1991.
"This conspiracy was carried out in part to maintain or increase charitable contributions and tuition payments and/or avoid public scandal in the church," charged the suit, filed in federal court in Scranton by lawyer Joseph H. Saunders of Pinellas Park, Fla.