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	Former Priest Faces Two New Sex Abuse Suits By Luisa Yanez Miami Herald June 25, 2008 http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/582969.html A former Catholic priest — already facing criminal charges in Broward County and a dozen lawsuits over sexually abusing several boys in South Florida — is being sued by two new victims. At a news conference Wednesday, attorney Jeffrey Herman, who is representing two cousins from Miami-Dade, said details of the Rev. Neil Doherty's abuse of them mirrors that of 12 other victims who have already filed suits against the priest. Doherty, 65, who worked as a priest until 2004, is living in retirement in Palm Beach County. "Father Doherty targeted vulnerable boys, offering to help then," Herman said. "After gaining their trust and that of their parents, he sexually abused the boys." The latest victims to come forward are now ages 36 and 29. The oldest victim met Doherty in the 1980s, while the priest did outreach work for the Catholic Church, seeking out troubled teens and offering parents guidance for their child. "The boy had been sent to the juvenile detention center where Father Doherty was assigned to help teens," Herman said. "Using his position, he offered the boy's mother to take her son under his wing. She agreed and even asked if he would also help his younger cousin, who also lacked a father figure in his life." Doherty quickly began molesting both boys, the suit alleges. The abuse occured in the rectory at St. Mary's Cathedral at 7525 NW Second Ave. in Miami and also a private home and in Doherty's car, Herman said. Wednesday afternoon, the Archdiocese of Miami issued a statement: "Father Neil Doherty retired in 2002 without faculties; he is not permitted to wear clerical garb, celebrate the sacraments or have an assignment," spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta said in the statement. Herman said what makes the case more sinister is that the Archdiocese of Miami was apparently aware of the priest's history, but instead of defrocking him, it moved him from parish to parish in between Miami-Dade and Broward. In legal documents, other victims have said that Doherty would slip drugs into their drinks to make them sleepy and molest them while they were unconscious. Doherty, a former pastor at St. Vincent's Catholic Church in Margate, is the first Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Miami to be charged with sexual battery on a child younger than 12. In January 2006, Doherty was arrested in Broward and charged with two counts of sexual battery on a child, two counts of indecent assault and one count of lewd or lascivious molestation. He was later released. The charges stemmed from a Broward Sheriff's Office investigation, where detectives found four victims — three boys and one adult male — who all told similar stories about being molested by Doherty. One victim said he met Doherty at St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Fort Lauderdale in 1973 when he was 12 years old. The priest, he said,gave him alcohol and marijuana, then sexually assaulted him, BSO said. Another victim, a young boy, told investigators that several times Doherty gave him soda that made him pass out. While the boy was unconscious, Doherty allegedly would sexually assault him. Investigators interviewed two more victims who told similar stories. Each said they went to Doherty for counseling, were given drugs, passed out and were sexually assaulted, according to BSO. The archdiocese's knowledge of past accusations against Doherty surfaced in a 2003 memorandum by the Broward state attorney's office in which a sex-crimes prosecutor disclosed a 1994 settlement with a student who had been enrolled at Chaminade High School in Hollywood decades earlier. A lawsuit filed in that case resulted in a $50,000 settlement Contact: lyanez@MiamiHerald.com
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