Priest Pleads Not Guilty to Sex Abuse in Ipswich

Daily Item
August 31, 2012

http://www.itemlive.com/articles/2012/08/31/updates/updates20.txt

A former high-ranking member of a Roman Catholic religious order accused of molesting a boy at an Ipswich camp decades ago was released Friday after pleading not guilty to five counts of child rape.

The Rev. Richard McCormick, 71, was granted $1,000 bail at his arraignment in Salem Superior Court and allowed to return to the Salesian Brothers of Don Bosco facility in New Rochelle, N.Y., where he lives and where he was arrested Thursday. Prosecutors had asked for $75,000 bail.

The alleged assaults took place in Ipswich in 1981 and 1982 when the alleged victim was about 11 and 12 years old, said Carrie Kimball-Monahan, a spokeswoman for the Essex district attorney.

McCormick was arrested following a yearlong investigation launched when the alleged victim went to authorities, she said.

Mitchell Garabedian, who is the civil representative for the man who made the criminal complaint, said the alleged abuse took place at a camp called Sacred Heart Retreat House, run by the Salesian Brothers.

McCormick went on to become the leader of the order for the eastern U.S., Garabedian said.

The camp no longer exists.

Garabedian has settled nine civil cases with the Salesians involving McCormick, he said, although there is no lawsuit pending in connection with the current criminal case. The alleged victim's name was not disclosed.

McCormick is already barred from any public ministry, Kimball-Monahan said.

A message left with the Salesians' eastern U.S. headquarters in New Rochelle on Friday was not immediately returned. McCormick's lawyer could not immediately be reached.