NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The Advocate
February 5, 2019
By Andrea Gallo
The list of abusive clergymen the Diocese of Baton Rouge produced last week did not include a Marist priest who was the pastor of St. Joseph Church in Paulina three decades ago and who was later credibly accused of sexual abuse in Arkansas.
Timothy Francis Sugrue is the second Marist priest who served in St. James Parish who was publicly accused of sexual abuse. The other one was included on the Diocese of Baton Rouge’s list of credibly accused clergy, but Sugrue was not. Diocese of Baton Rouge spokesman Dan Borné said Tuesday evening that the diocese was still researching Sugrue’s record and would report back to The Advocate once officials have more definitive information.
The newspaper’s archives show that Sugrue worked in Paulina, on the east bank of the Mississippi River, between 1980 and 1987 and possibly longer, and that he celebrated scores of local weddings and funerals during that span. After Sugrue left the Diocese of Baton Rouge, he and the Marist order faced a lawsuit in 1992 regarding alleged sexual abuse. A woman in Alabama said Sugrue had sexually abused her in 1978, when she was 8 and he was a military chaplain at the now-closed Eaker Air Force Base in Blytheville, Arkansas.
The alleged abuse happened before Sugrue moved south to Louisiana. The attorney who represented the woman who alleged abuse by Sugrue told The Advocate that he believes it’s likely the priest has victims elsewhere.
Morgan “Chip” Welch, now a state judge for the 6th Judicial District Court in Arkansas, said in an interview Tuesday that when he asked Sugrue about abuse in a number of cities, the then-priest alternated between invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and denying that he had abused anyone.
“His pretrial deposition was a game of`Connect the Dots,’” Welch said.
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