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	Cousin of Sex Offender Tells of Complaint at Earlier Church By Bruce Lambert New York Times April 21, 2007 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/21/nyregion/21church.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin Garden City, N.Y., April 20 — The cousin of a former youth minister who confessed to the statutory rape of four teenagers testified on Friday in a civil lawsuit against St. Raphael's Roman Catholic Church in East Meadow, saying that years before those crimes, a mother in another parish had complained about the man having sex with her 16-year-old daughter. The cousin, Frank Maiello, gave fresh ammunition to two of the minister's victims who are now suing their abuser, Matthew Maiello, the parish, its pastor and the Diocese of Rockville Centre, in State Supreme Court here. Frank Maiello, now a New York City police sergeant, testified that after working with Matthew, his second cousin, at another church where the woman complained, he recommended against Matthew's hiring at St. Raphael's, though he never told the pastor why. But Matthew Maiello was hired and went on to commit his crimes against youths as young as 15. Many of the sexual activities occurred in the St. Raphael's complex, including in the church, convent, rectory and school. Some of it was videotaped. Matthew Maiello, who served two years in prison for the crimes, has few assets and is not contesting the lawsuit. It claims the church and its pastor ignored warnings before hiring him and then ignored complaints about his conduct on the job. The church defendants lay all the blame on Matthew Maiello and say they were unaware of what he was doing. The Maiello cousins worked together at St. Edward Confessor Roman Catholic Church in Syosset in the early 1990s, according to court documents. Frank was the youth ministry director there, and for a time Matthew was the program's associate director. At St. Edward, Sergeant Maiello testified, a mother complained to him about what he called an "inappropriate" sexual relationship that Matthew was having with her daughter in the youth program. That teenager, now 31, testified on Wednesday that Matthew had been abusive and forced her to have sex with him and other men, including strangers. She and her parents said they complained to various church representatives, but did not sue or file criminal charges, and that they were testifying in the current case to show that the church had been warned about Matthew Maiello and failed to stop him. Matthew Maiello went on to work at two more churches and eventually taught English at Kellenberg, a Catholic high school in Uniondale, before being arrested in 2003. From St. Edward he moved to Our Lady of Fatima in Manorhaven. In the late 1990s he went to St. Raphael's as the music director for the rock-music Mass, then applied to become the youth ministry director there. His résumé listed his earlier work at St. Edward's. In the hiring process, St. Raphael's pastor, the Rev. Thomas Haggerty, called Frank Maiello as a reference. "He asked me for a recommendation for Matthew Maiello," Sergeant Maiello testified, adding that he told Father Haggerty, "I cannot give you a positive recommendation." The lawyer for the victims, Michael G. Dowd, asked whether Father Haggerty inquired why Frank Maiello would not recommend his cousin for the job of youth minister. Frank Maiello answered: "No. He thanked me, and that was the end of the conversation." Later, after Matthew was hired, Sergeant Maiello said he spoke to a fellow police officer who was a St. Raphael's parishioner and advised him not to allow his children to join the youth program there.
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