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	Former Teen Church Abuse Victim Testifies at L.I. Trial Associated Press, carried in 1010 WINS April 23, 2007 http://1010wins.com/pages/380683.php?contentType=4&contentId=434586 Mineola, N.Y. — A young woman testified Monday that she no longer has faith in God and has trouble maintaining relationships with men after being sexually seduced over the course of several years by a youth minister. " don't believe in God anymore," testified the 23-year-old, one of two plaintiffs in a civil suit against Matthew Maiello, a former minister at St. Raphael's Church in East Meadow, Long Island. Also named in the lawsuit are the church, its pastor and the Diocese of Rockville Centre. The plaintiffs are seeking $150 million in damages, claiming church leadership was negligent in failing to uncover or prevent the youth minister's sexual attacks on teenagers in his care. They also allege that church leaders failed to properly screen the minister before he was hired. Maiello pleaded guilty to rape and sodomy of the pair in 2003 and served more than two years in prison. Despite being a defendant in the lawsuit, Maiello is not contesting the charges against him. He was expected to be called as a witness for the plaintiffs on Tuesday, said attorney Michael Dowd. The woman and the young man are not being identified by The Associated Press because they are victims of sexual abuse. On Monday, a female victim of Maiello's advances testified in excruciating detail about how Maiello seduced her and eventually had sexual relations with her in a variety of locations on church property — including church pews and the elementary school principal's office — and elsewhere between 1998 and 2002. "He would always tell me it was God's plan for us to be together," said the woman. "He controlled all of my thoughts — he manipulated me." The lawsuit is one of the rare cases to actually go before a jury in the aftermath of the church sex abuse scandal that erupted five years ago. Because many abuses came to light after criminal statutes of limitations had expired, civil claims were often settled out of court. The U.S. Conference of Bishops estimates abuse-related costs from lawsuits have exceeded $1.5 billion so far. Attorney Brian Davey, who represents the pastor, the Rev. Thomas Haggerty, the parish and the diocese, said all the blame for the sex attacks rests on Maiello, not the church leadership. The female accuser testified that after Maiello began a sexual relationship with her — taking her virginity in a basement office in the church convent _ he eventually cajoled her into having sex with a teenage boy in the youth ministry. That boy is the second plaintiff in the lawsuit. "I didn't understand it," she said of the encounter with the teenager. She said that until then Maiello had showered her with love and affection and said their sexual relationship was sanctioned by God. But when Maiello "ordered" her to have sex with the teenage boy, she complied. She said Maiello told her, "If I loved him, this is what I had to do. ... I felt like a prostitute." Before long, Maiello was also engaging in three-way sex with both the teenagers, the woman tearfully testified. In 2003, the woman said, she had grown tired of the manipulation and eventually reported Maiello to police. She admitted to considering suicide in the days after reporting the sex abuse to police and her parents. "I wanted all the pain to go away," the woman said. "I didn't want to think about the past."
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