ROCHESTER (NY)
WHAM Fox
August 29, 2019
By Jane Flasch
A man suing the Diocese of Rochester claims he was victimized twice: when he was sexually abused as a boy by a priest, then against as a teen by an employee of a church-run youth program.
“The acts we’re hearing are simply horrific,” said attorney Dan Ellis of Herman Law. “Our client has had to suffer with this for decades.”
The startling allegations get at the heart of the alleged ongoing cover-up of sexual abuse by the Catholic Church.
One of the accused remains on the job and currently works in part with mentally-challenged adults. Dan Charcholla runs the recreation center at DePaul Mental Health Services.
In 1981, when he was 16, the alleged victim says he was tied up, beaten and raped with the baseball bat that was used as the weapon. The lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court says the victim, identified only as “J-O”, “was kidnapped and held in Charcholla’s home for a week. He says he was forced to have sex with other teens and suffered injuries so severe he “underwent emergency surgery.”
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