By Sean O'sullivan
The News Journal
August 16, 2008
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080816/NEWS01/808160325
Attorneys on Friday announced they had filed the first lawsuit by a female victim of an alleged pedophile priest in Wilmington.
Mary Dougherty, 55, charged in court papers that in 1966, when she was 13, the Rev. Leonard J. Mackiewicz sexually assaulted her on several occasions, and tried to rape her.
At the time, she was a member of the Catholic Youth Organization under Mackiewicz at Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church.
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| Mary Dougherty, 55, charged in a lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington that the Rev. Leonard J. Mackiewicz sexually assaulted and tried to rape her in 1966. Mackiewicz died in 1994. Photo by DAMIAN GILETTO |
Church officials had no comment, saying they had not yet seen the lawsuit.
Mackiewicz died in 1994 and was identified by the Wilmington Diocese as one of 20 priests who the church determined had "credible or substantiated complaints of sexual abuse of minors" against them.
In addition to several alleged instances of Mackiewicz forcibly fondling Dougherty, including in a pool and once when pinned to the wall in a church basement, the lawsuit charges he tried to rape her during a church outing to Indian River Inlet.
Attorney Stephen Neuberger said the priest tackled her and tried to force himself on her and rip off her bathing suit while yelling, "This is power [expletive]."
The assault was stopped, according to Neuberger, when another priest, the Rev. Leonard Kempski, came upon the scene and pulled Mackiewicz off. The sexual abuse allegedly stopped after Dougherty confronted Mackiewicz several days later in a church confessional and threatened to kill him if he ever touched her again.
The diocese said Kempski would not comment.
The lawsuit charges gross negligence by the church for not removing Mackiewicz and covering up allegations against the priest that dated to 1957.
Dougherty was at the news conference but did not speak.
Neuberger said the attacks destroyed her faith and caused her lifelong problems, including depression, anxiety, insomnia and substance abuse.
Contact Sean O'Sullivan at 324-2777 or sosullivan@delawareonline.com.
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