Bergen Catholic High School settles for $1.9M with 21 men over clerical sexual abuse allegations

By Michael O’keeffe
New York Daily News
August 23, 2016

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/n-catholic-hs-settles-1-9m-teacher-sexual-abuse-case-article-1.2761576

Kobutsu Malone, 66, born in Nottingham, England has been a practicing Zen Bhuddist for 40 years. He is a survivor of clerical sexual abuse in Bergen Catholic High School in Oradell, New Jersey.

Bergen Catholic High School has agreed to pay $1.9 million to 21 men who say they were molested by 11 teachers during the 1960s and 1970s, but the former student who sparked the settlement talks is not part of the deal because he has refused to take down a website detailing sexual and physical abuse at the school.

Kobutsu Malone said lawyers for the Oradell, N.J., school want to silence him in hopes of making the sex-abuse scandal go away with as little fanfare as possible.

“Considering the charges we are making, to find the school in a-- covering mode rather than healing mode is really disgusting,” said Malone, a 66-year-old Buddhist monk who now lives in Maine.

The school agreed to the settlement in November, but the deal was not made public until Monday.

Lawyer Mitchell Garabedian, who represented seven of the 21 former students, said they alleged victims were between 13 and 17 years old when they were abused between 1963 and 1978. The men are now 53 to 68 years old.

The alleged victims will be paid between $65,000 and $115,000 each, according to the settlement agreement.