PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review
BY MATTHEW SANTONI | Tuesday, March 29, 2016
The Diocese of Pittsburgh reached an undisclosed “five-figure” out-of-court settlement late last year with an alleged victim of a sexually abusive priest who served in Allegheny County from 1985-88, his attorney announced this week.
Boston-based attorney Mitchell Garabedian said the settlement was reached in October over his client’s alleged sexual assault by John Connor, who was a chaplain at Sewickley Valley Hospital and then a priest at St. Alphonsus Church in Pine. His client, now in his 40s, was 12 to 14 years old when the abuse took place between 1985 and 1986 in Connor’s car, a Pittsburgh movie theater and on a Bradford Woods basketball court, Garabedian said.
The statute of limitations for criminal charges has expired, Garabedian said, but he was publicizing the civil settlement and others to urge the Catholic Church toward greater transparency. “My client should be proud of himself for having the courage to report sexual abuse,” said Garabedian, whose work representing victims of abusive priests was portrayed in the movie “Spotlight.”
“In doing so, my client has empowered himself, other clergy sex-abuse victims and children everywhere,” he said. “It’s time to end the secrecy surrounding clergy sexual abuse, and the only way to do that is reporting the known perpetrators.”
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