By Buffy Spencer
The Republican
April 27, 2011
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/04/judge_hears_arguements_to_drop.html
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| Former Springfield bishops Joseph Maguire, left, and Thomas Dupre, are the subject of a civil suit in which a Williamstown man says he was molested as an altar boy by the former Rev. Alfred Graves. |
Lawyers for two Roman Catholic bishops argued Tuesday in Hampden Superior Court that a lawsuit against the pair filed by a man who said he was abused by a priest should be dismissed.
Hampden Superior Court Judge Cornelius J. Moriarty took under advisement the motion by lawyers for Bishop Emeritus Joseph F. Maguire and Bishop Thomas L. Dupre to dismiss the civil suit against their clients.
The suit was filed in 2009 by Williamstown resident Andrew F. Nicastro against Dupre, Maguire and the Rev. Richard S. Sniezyk. Nicastro, a former altar boy, alleges he was molested by the former Rev. Alfred Graves between 1982 and 1984 at St. Patrick’s Parish in Williamstown. Graves has since been defrocked.
The suit names Maguire, at the time the Springfield diocese bishop; Dupre, then a chancellor and third in command of the diocese; and Sniezyk, who was Graves’ supervisor, stating they knew about the molestation and did nothing about it.
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| Andrew F. Nicastro, of Williamstown, listens to lawyers during a Hampden Superior Court hearing Tuesday related to his civil suit against officials of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield for abuse he says he suffered as a child by former Rev. Alfred Graves. |
Dupre was bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield until 2004 when he retired suddenly after being confronted by The Republican with allegations that he molested two boys in the 1970s. He was indicted later, but the case was dropped because the statute of limitations had passed.
John J. Egan, lawyer for Maguire, told Moriarty that under case law decided by the state Supreme Judicial Court, Nicastro’s suit should be dismissed. Egan said Nicastro recognized the harm the abuse caused him as early as 1984, so he does not fall under a category that would allow him to pursue the suit this far after the abuse.
John J. Stobierski, Nicastro’s lawyer, said Nicastro did not realize the harm Graves caused him until he talked with another priest in 2008.
Michael O. Jennings, Dupre’s lawyer, joined the motion to dismiss the case.
The suit does not name Graves or the diocese.
Graves, who has been named as an abuser in other suits filed against the diocese, was barred from presenting himself as a priest in the 1990s and officially defrocked by the Vatican in 2006.
Stobierski has said the suit against Dupre is different from any other priest abuse complaint filed in the United States because it involves a defendant who has been accused of child molestation and supervised another accused of the same type of crime.
After a barrage of lawsuits early last decade, the suit is one of the few civil complaints filed since 2005. The diocese paid out $7.7 million to dozens of claimants in 2004 and agreed to pay another $4.5 million to 59 alleged abuse victims in 2008. Those costs were offset by an $8.5 million settlement between the diocese and three insurance companies.
Egan told Moriarty that Nicastro had declined to participate in the arbitration set up to settle abuse cases.
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