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	Former Broward Priest Accused of Paying Boys for Sex during Counseling By Madeline Baro Diaz Sun-Sentinel [Miami] April 12, 2007 http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-dpriest12apr12,0,6422904.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines Three men have accused a former Broward County priest awaiting trial on sexual molestation charges of paying them for sex when they were boys and turning them into prostitutes. The allegations in three lawsuits filed Wednesday in Miami-Dade Circuit Court against the Archdiocese of Miami are the latest naming the Rev. Neil Doherty, former pastor of St. Vincent's Catholic Church in Margate. Each suit seeks more than $25 million in damages. The three men, now in their 30s, met Doherty in the 1980s when they were around 10 to 15 years old as part of church outreach programs in Miami, the lawsuits said. At the time, Doherty was serving as a priest in Miami-Dade County. All three were troubled children whom Doherty was supposed to be counseling, said their attorney Jeffrey Herman. As adults, they also have had drug problems and other scrapes with the law, and one is jailed on criminal charges, he said. "All these boys have had really, really tough lives," Herman said. Archdiocese spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta said the archdiocese had not formally received a copy of the lawsuits and learned of their filing through media outlets. Once the archdiocese receives sex abuse lawsuits, they report the accusations to the State Attorney's Office, she said. "The archdiocese takes every allegation seriously," Agosta said. According to the lawsuits, Doherty gave the boys money and drugs in exchange for sex. Eventually, all three became prostitutes and Doherty would cruise Biscayne Boulevard in Miami and pick them up for sex, the lawsuits said. Herman, who has filed dozens of suits against the archdiocese, including six others involving Doherty, said documents show church leaders knew of the abuse allegations involving the three boys. A church investigator interviewed one boy when he was 14 and he told them he was having sex with Doherty and that he saw Doherty using drugs, Herman said. "In my opinion, this is as bad as it gets in terms of the Catholic Church covering up and protecting a predator priest," Herman said. "It's a shame. Instead of protecting these kids, they protected this priest." Doherty is awaiting trial on charges in Broward that he molested, drugged and raped a boy from the time he was 7 until he was 14, ending in 1999. In January, Doherty was arrested and charged with eight counts of sexual battery, lewd and lascivious acts and molestation. He pleaded not guilty and is free on $70,000 bond. According to a statement by the alleged victim, Doherty also gave him money after each episode of abuse. Other lawsuits have accused Doherty of drugging and raping boys in incidents dating to 1973. Doherty retired in 2002 and is not assigned to a church or allowed to wear clerical garb or celebrate the sacraments, according to the archdiocese.
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