Woodbridge Pastor a Witness in Sex Abuse Case

By Anthony Karge
The Patch
February 6, 2012

http://bethwood.patch.com/articles/woodbridge-pastor-a-witness-in-sexual-abuse-case


A Woodbridge pastor testified last week as a witness about his role in the alleged cover up of sexual abuse in the Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford.

Rev. Gene Gianelli, now pastor of Our Lady Assumption Church, was called as a witness for his time as an aide in the archdiocese more than 30 years ago.

According to the Hartford Courant, Gianelli testified that he helped find treatment for a priest accused of molesting boys. The Courant reported that he “testified that he decided to keep the name of the church clinic where the abusive priest was sent for treatment from the mother of two, abused brothers because he was afraid that she could become ‘a pest.’”

The civil suit filed in Waterbury Superior Court on behalf of a later victim of the now-deceased priest accuses the archdiocese of not doing enough to stop the priest’s sexual abuse. The case began in 2008 and is going to trial. Jury recruitment begins on Feb. 7.