Two New Lawsuits Filed against Convicted Defrocked Priest Daniel Mccormack

WLS
August 14, 2015

http://www.wlsam.com/2015/08/14/two-new-lawsuits-filed-against-convicted-defrocked-priest-daniel-mccormack/

Daniel McCormack | Illinois Department of Corrections

Two new lawsuits were filed Thursday alleging sexual abuse by convicted child molester and defrocked priest Daniel McCormack and the Archdiocese of Chicago.

The plaintiffs — two men identified only as John J.M. Doe and John K. Doe — filed the suits Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court against the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Both plaintiffs claim in their separate suits that McCormack groomed them and engaged the boys in sexual and abusive relationships from 2000 to 2003 while the priest was a pastor at St. Agatha’s Parish on the West Side.

McCormack was removed from the priesthood in November 2007 and pleaded guilty that year to abusing five other children at St. Agatha’s.

He was sentenced to five years in prison and has been staying at a state-run mental health facility since his release from prison in 2009.

He faces a new set of criminal charges filed in 2014, this time for an alleged 2005 incident involving a minor boy, also at St. Agatha.

The suits allege the Archdiocese received warnings about McCormack’s behavior as early as 1994 — the same year the priest was ordained — and could have stopped the abuse earlier.

“While we do not comment on lawsuits, we can reassure the public that the Archdiocese’s Office for Child Abuse Investigations and Review responds to each and every reported case of sexual abuse of a minor by Archdiocesan personnel very seriously and treats each of the individuals involved with compassion and professionalism throughout the entire process,” according to a statement from a spokeswoman for the archdiocese.

Both two-count lawsuits seek at least $100,000 in damages.