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	Part 3: McAllister Claims Priest Abuse Contributed to Drug Problem By Nate Birt Boonville Daily News September 3, 2009 |Part 1| Part 2| Part 4| Transition to college Mark McAllister doesn't remember many of the details surrounding his final encounter with Gerald Howard, a priest assigned to Boonville's Ss. Peter and Paul parish by the Diocese of Jefferson City. What McAllister does remember, he said, is that it happened during his first year of medical school at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. After that, he said, the encounters ended because of the distance that separated them. "To my recollection, it just kind of faded away, and I never saw him again," McAllister said. He said he doesn't blame anyone in Boonville for what he claims happened to him because, McAllister said, he doesn't think anyone in town knew Howard's history. As in high school, McAllister said, he continued to push himself in college to do well in academics, athletics and social life. But he said he was also struggling. McAllister said he began doing drugs by choice in medical school. Primarily, he said, that involved alcohol and marijuana. At some point, he said, it became more than a recreational decision, one that carried through much of his adult life. In retrospect, he said, those were the only coping tools given to him by Howard, a man McAllister claims sexually assaulted him repeatedly over the course of five years. "I'm not real proud of that," McAllister said, "but frankly, I didn't know any other way." A challenging residency After completing his six-year program at UMKC, McAllister said, he got a residency in general surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. Throughout that residency, McAllister said, he struggled with drugs. Fifteen Web postings from the State Medical Board of Ohio provide support for that statement, and McAllister confirmed that he is the person named in those records. The earliest entry in McAllister's file begins with the word "citation" and is dated Dec. 9, 1998; the most recent entry, dated May 14 of this year, begins with the words "probation modified." The Dec. 9, 1998, entry states that there were allegations that McAllister had abused the drug Fentanyl, "which doctor procured through hospital anesthesia supply system by falsifying medication computer records and documenting that doses had been administered to patients when part of dosage was actually being kept by doctor for his personal use." A May 12, 2004, entry beginning with the words "consent agreement" in a posting to the medical board's Web site states that McAllister's medical license had been suspended. A Feb. 11 entry from this year beginning with the words "board order" indicates that McAllister's medical license had again been suspended. The board's decision, the posting states, resulted from its determination that McAllister had violated the conditions of limitation from a November 2005 consent agreement; that his ability to practice was impaired because of a relapse on Fentanyl; and because his "diversion of Fentanyl from a patient constitutes commission of an act that constitutes a felony in Ohio. Order effective upon mailing." McAllister said his struggles with drugs "strained relationships terribly." He met the woman who would become his wife, Monica, in 1996, he said, and has been married going on eight years. But he said even a relationship such as that couldn't end his struggles. He said he was first intervened on in 1997, and that he couldn't seem to get things together. After his Ohio license was reinstated, McAllister said, he took a residency in Virginia, but his struggles continue. "I'm currently suspended by Ohio," McAllister said, adding that his status in Virginia is pending. McAllister said he has been in residential in-patient treatment on two occasions and has been active in 12-step recovery programs for a long time. He said he could have had the world. Instead, he said, he left members of his family asking what they had done wrong. McAllister said he has "squandered many opportunities." Missing pieces of Howard's past It remains unclear how Carmine Sita became Howard, and how he came to work in Boonville. Howard pleaded guilty in October 1982 in New Jersey to second-degree sexual assault and received five years of probation, according to a judgment of conviction and dismissals form filed with the Superior Court of New Jersey, Hudson County. A complaint filed in September of that year and obtained on the afternoon of Aug. 25 by the BDN claims that Howard - then known as Carmine Sita - was suspected of "an act of penetration (sexual penetration) with a juvenile male on diverse dates" and "distribution of a controlled dangerous substance to a minor." The Diocese of Jefferson City and the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests have both stated in news releases that Howard, formerly known as Sita, underwent a name change and that he went to a treatment facility in Albuquerque, N.M., before going to Missouri. Additionally, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Newark earlier this week confirmed that the New Mexico facility had been operated by the Servants of the Paraclete. One stipulation identified for Howard's probation was that he would be required to submit a written report "to Probation Dept. quarterly for the first year, and thereafter, semi-annually," according to the judgment of conviction and dismissals form. But it's likely that any reports ever filed in connection with that case have been destroyed, said John Mooney, assistant chief of probation for Hudson County, N.J., on the afternoon of Aug. 25. The documents would have been sent to an off-site storage facility, he said, and normally, probation documents are destroyed 10 years after a case is concluded according to legal standards. A woman who answered the phone at the Vianney Renewal Community, which is associated with the Servants, referred the BDN to a Father Liam. When asked whether another person might also be able to speak on behalf of the Servants, she said there was not. She then transferred the BDN to Father Liam. When asked Tuesday whether he could comment on the Mark McAllister case, he said, "No, I cannot" and hung up on the reporter. The BDN was told on a subsequent call that the Servants could not give out Father Liam's last name. Additionally, no evidence has been found documenting that Howard ever filed a change-of-name form in Albuquerque. Two searches pairing the names Carmine Sita and Gerald Howard for 1983 returned no records held by the Bernalillo County Clerk's Office, said Gloria Trujillo, a records tech, on Tuesday afternoon. Albuquerque is located in Bernalillo County. A voicemail seeking comment was left with the Ss. Peter and Paul Convent in Boonville on Aug. 25. It had not been returned by the morning of Aug. 26. Newfound responsibility McAllister said he thinks a turning point in his life - the point at which he began to remember his encounters with Howard - came with the birth of his son, Zachary, in 2006. Six to nine months after his son was born,McAllister said, he began having vivid, realistic nightmares about Howard. "This guy has not crossed my mind for 20 years, at this point," McAllister said. When they began, he said, he questioned whether his dreams were real. But eventually, he said, they became worse. In fall 2007, he began having daytime flashbacks, McAllister said, and he couldn't control when they happened. Sometimes, a cue such as a picture of the New York skyline or a car similar to one that Howard had driven triggered those memories, McAllister said. McAllister said he thought he was losing his mind. He fought sleep because he feared having a nightmare, McAllister said, and he became hyperreactive, jumping at the slightest stimulation. "There was a point where my options were to go insane, to commit suicide or to use drugs again," McAllister said. "When those are your three choices, I made the obvious choice." McAllister said that's not to say he blames all of his actions on Howard. He said that he was afraid to talk about what he was seeing and remembering in part because of fears that people wouldn't take him seriously. It was in a treatment facility in Virginia, McAllister said, that a therapist first labeled what he was describing as abuse. "I was stunned," McAllister said. "I didn't believe her." He said that when he listened to the therapist repeat back what had happened, it made sense. In pursuit of a settlement McAllister said that when he first told his parents about what he described as abuse, they were skeptical. But he said they commented that if it had happened, they would work to get to the bottom of it. McAllister said the treatments he had undergone were very expensive, more than his family could afford. McAllister said he had heard that the Catholic church would help abuse victims, and said his parents began making inquiries about pursuing a settlement. At the time, McAllister said, he was stiil in a treatment facility. In turn, McAllister said, church officials with both the Diocese of Jefferson City and the Archdiocese of Newark "tried to blow us off, basically."
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