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	Valley Native Who Took down Geoghan Still Fighting for Victims By Brian Messenger Eagle-Tribune March 28, 2010 http://www.eagletribune.com/punews/local_story_086221912.html METHUEN (MA) -- He is the Hampshire Street farm boy best known for taking down former priest and pedophile John J. Geoghan. Mitchell Garabedian had been an attorney for 15 years when a woman walked into his Boston law office in the mid-1990s with her three children in tow. The story they shared with him would change all their lives, not to mention those of countless other victims with similar tales of sexual abuse at the hands of Geoghan and other clergy members. Garabedian's lawsuits against Geoghan and the Archdiocese of Boston unearthed a widespread scandal that eventually shook the Roman Catholic Church to its core. "Victims will come forward beyond my time," said Garabedian, 58, who has represented 148 alleged victims of Geoghan. Of that group, 146 received settlements. The other two cases are pending. In all, Garabedian said, he's represented more than 700 alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse. He said the depth of the scandal became evident to him very early on. Eventually, Garabedian said, his work helped bring to light proof that Boston Cardinal Bernard Law and other church leaders knew about the abuse yet still reassigned the accused to new parishes. "At that point the documents spoke for themselves," said Garabedian. Ultimately, Garabedian said, the scandal proved that the Catholic church placed profit over the safety of children. "All the way up the chain of command," Garabedian said, "there were supervisors protecting pedophiles. Month after month, year after year, decade after decade, because business was good." Because religion is so sacred to many, Garabedian said, people have trouble dealing with the crisis. Many are members of a close-knit church community, while others have learned over the years to respect priests without question, he said. One thing Garabedian said he has learned over the years is to question authority. Garabedian, who is unmarried and lives in Boston, grew up on his parent's Hampshire Street vegetable farm. Though his father Martin died in the 1990s, his mother Violet still lives in Methuen. Growing up, his family went to Holy Cross Armenian Church in Lawrence every Sunday. Garabedian graduated from Tenney High School in 1969. He went on to earn degrees at Boston and Northeastern universities before enrolling in the New England School of Law in Boston. Garabedian almost never lived to become a lawyer. During his last year in law school in the late 1970s, he was hit by a driver while jogging in Brighton and was left in a coma for a week. Garabedian said he managed to graduate on time, catching up on his studies while enduring two years of surgeries and physical therapy. He opened his practice in 1979. "It certainly reinforced the view of what was important in my life," said Garabedian of the accident. "Just taking care of yourself, family and others." Contact: bmessenger@eagletribune.com
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