By Monica Potts
The Advocate
August 3, 2009
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/ci_12986264?source=most_emailed
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| Rev. Michael Jude Fay, former pastor of St. John's Roman Catholic Church in Darien, Conn., leaves U.S. District Court in New Haven in 2007 |
STAMFORD -- As a trial date approaches, an attorney for the whistle-blower in the case of the priest convicted of embezzling $1 million from his Darien parish filed a memorandum that said the priest had an affair with a married member of the church's finance board.
The memorandum, filed in state Superior Court in Waterbury on Monday, said allegations made by the whistle-blower, bookkeeper Bethany D'Erario, were not immediately acted upon by the diocese in part because the priest, the Rev. Michael Jude Fay, had tight relationships with board members.
"Fay not only handpicked the Board members, but he also admitted to Plaintiff that he had engaged in a homosexual affair with a married Church finance board member, often bragging to the Plaintiff that he was 'in bed' with the Board, both 'figuratively and literally,' " the memorandum states.
The memorandum does not name the board member.
D'Erario filed a lawsuit last year, claiming her employers at St. John Roman Catholic Church on the Post Road and the Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocese created a hostile work environment that forced her to resign after she hired a private investigator, Vito Colucci, in 2006 because of suspicious financial activity by Fay, who had been pastor there since 1991.
D'Erario and another pastor, Rev. Michael Madden, hired Colucci after they believed Fay's superiors were unresponsive to their initial reports of possible financial misconduct as early as 2003, and were afraid the diocese would accuse them as well, the suit says.
Colucci found evidence of criminal conduct and reported the activity to Darien police, who in turn reported it to the FBI, the suit says. Fay pleaded guilty to interstate transportation of money obtained by fraud in September 2007, and in December 2007 he was sentenced to 37 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.
After several delays, he began serving his prison term in October in a Massachusetts facility, where he was allowed to continue a drug trial for prostate cancer.
Among other things, the lawsuit claims that Rev. Frank McGrath, who took over after Fay, helped spread rumors that D'Erario and Madden were having an affair, that the diocese repeatedly sent people to interrogate D'Erario and that the diocese wanted to take away her health care benefits and deny her a raise.
The latest claims were made in a memorandum arguing against the diocese's motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
Daniel Schwartz, an attorney for Day Pitney LLP, the Stamford firm representing the diocese, said D'Erario's own testimony in a deposition shows that there was no retaliation after she hired Colucci.
"Her health benefits depended on how many hours she worked," he said. "She was told on July 31, 2006, that she needed to work 30 hours a week in order to qualify and that she was not currently meeting that requirement. And the next day she quit. She didn't ask if she could work more hours, she didn't suggest any other solutions, she just quit."
Schwartz said that the diocese already had asked the United States attorney's office to investigate Fay by the time D'Erario hired Colucci, and that she was motivated by worries for her own job and not by a civic concern, as required by the state's law protecting whistle-blowers.
"She admitted that she was aware and had concerns about Father Fay's activities for several years before she actually hired the private investigator or took any other meaningful action," Schwartz said.
In the memorandum filed Monday, D'Erario stated that she was scheduled to work 28 hours a week but had always stayed late or worked on her days off to qualify for the health benefits.
"The only motive Beth and Mike Madden had in blowing the whistle was to stop Father Fay's embezzlement," D'Erario's attorney, Mark Sherman, said in a statement. "As a thank-you gift, the Church and Diocese cut her health benefits, slandered her name, and did everything they could to push her out the door. It's time for the Diocese to be held accountable."
If the motion is denied, the trial is set for Sept. 14.
"We have every intention of calling the bishop as a witness in this case," Sherman said, referring to Bishop William Lori of the Bridgeport Diocese.
Staff writer Monica Potts can be reached at monica.potts@scni.com or 203-964-2266.
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