Assignment Record – Rev. Neil A. "Gus" Doherty Ordained: 1969 |
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| Start | Stop | Parish/Assignment | Town/Accusations | State | Position | Notes |
1969 Miami archbishop was Coleman Francis Carroll (1958-1977) |
1970 | St. Bartholomew's | Miramar
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FL | 3/3 | St. Bartholomew's had a school with 435 students. |
| Catholic Family Services | Miami • In 2005 a man filed a lawsuit with accusations that Doherty drugged and raped him in the late 1960s, when he was about 11 years old. The boy was receiving counseling from the Catholic Welfare Bureau. The man said Doherty took him to his (the priest's) mother's house where he gave him alcohol and marijuana. He said the abuse happened after he passed out, and he would wake up and realize Doherty was abusing him. • The parents of a boy who's son was counseled by Doherty at CFS when he was a 17 year-old high schooler in the late 1970s reported to the archbishop in 1992 that, in 1978, Doherty drugged and raped their son. The archdiocese settled with the family in 1994. • In 1979 Doherty was accused of supplying drugs to then sexually abusing an 18 year-old male patient of the South Florida Mental Health Hospital. |
FL | counselor | This assignment is per news reports. Doherty was the 'go-to' priest when the archdiocese received calls from families seeking counseling for their troubled sons. Some accusers said Doherty told them to call him "Gus". |
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| 1970 | 1972 | St. Francis of Assisi | Riviera Beach • In April 1972 fellow priest Rev. Martin Cassidy told archbishop Carroll that Doherty had legally adopted an adolescent boy, who was sleeping in Doherty's bedroom. Carroll did nothing. |
FL | 3/3 | St. Francis' had a school with 494-538 students. In 1971 Fr. Cassidy warned higher-ups that Doherty should be kept away from drug rehabilitation facilities. This was after police, on a tip that drug abuse was rampant there, raided a halfway house for troubled youth at which Doherty was a supervisor. |
| 1972 | 1973 | Sacred Heart | Lake Worth | FL | 3/4 | Sacred Heart had a school with 344 students. |
1973 Carroll was succeeded by Edward Anthony McCarthy (1977-1994) |
1978 | St. Anthony's | Ft. Lauderdale • Doherty was accused in a 2003 lawsuit of having drugged and raped a 12 year-old boy in the late 1970s at St. Anthony's. The abuse is said to have occurred at Doherty's mother's home, a hotel room, and an apartment behind a parishioner's house. • A man accused Doherty in a June 2007 lawsuit of having sexually abused him at St. Anthony's in the mid-1970s, when the man was 12 years old. |
FL | 4/4, 4/5 | St. Anthony's had a school with 555-514 students. One of Doherty's accusers told investigators in 2005 that, in the 1970s, Doherty wrote prescriptions for Valium and a sleeping pill from a South Florida doctor's prescription pad. |
| 1978 | 1979 | Doherty is not indexed in the 1979 Directory, nor is he listed in the Miami archdiocesan pages as at his previous or next assignments. | ||||
| 1979 | 1982 | St. Matthew's | Hallandale | FL | 3/3 In residence. | St. Matthew's had a school with 184-151 students. |
| 1982 | 1985 | St. Philip's | Opa Locka • Doherty was accused in a Nov. 2012 lawsuit of sexually abusing a 15 year-old boy over an 18 month period, beginning in 1984. Doherty is said to have plied the boy with drugs, alcohol and money. His is said to have been a troubled boy who met Doherty at a trailer park. |
FL | 1/1 | |
| 1982 | 1985 | Archdiocesan Professional Groups | Miami |
FL | Director | In 1983 a therapist reported to Archbishop McCarthy the disclosure of an 11 year-old male patient that Doherty had drugged and sexually abused him. There was no investigation. |
| 1984 | 1988 | Archdiocesan Vocations | Miami | FL | Director | |
| 1985 | 1986 | St. Mary's Cathedral | Miami | FL | 5/5 In residence. | The Cathedral had a school with 445 studnets. |
| Notre Dame d'Haiti | Miami | FL | This was a mission of St. Mary's Cathedral. | |||
| 1985 | 1998 | Archdiocesan Vocations Board | Miami | FL | Vice Chairman 1985-1988 Member 1988-1998 |
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| 1986 | 1988 | St. Bartholomew's |
Miramar • In 1987 a psychologist told archdiocesan officials that Doherty was one among a number of archdiocesan priests abusing children. According to the psychologist Doherty had involvement with a young male prostitute he had met while working at a halfway house. When contacted by church officials, the young man in question denied the allegations. • In Nov. 2011 a man received a settlement from the archdiocese, having claimed that Doherty sexually abused him when the man was 14 years old, in 1986. |
FL | 4/4 In residence. | St. Bartholomew's had a school with 305-290 students. In 1987 the boy whose therapist informed the archbishop of the his disclosure of abuse by Doherty sought Doherty out at the archdiocesan pastoral center. Doherty wasn't there. The boy told the secretary, a nun, that he'd gotten a venereal disease from Doherty. She informed archdiocesan officials. Doherty fired the nun, calling her "mentally ill and severely unreliable".Chancellor Gerard T. LaCerra investigated. Doherty's accuser told him that Doherty would get drunk and have sex with him and other boys. Doherty was allowed to continue his work counseling boys. |
| 1988 | 1990 | Holy Redeemer | Miami | FL | 1/1 | Holy Redeemer had a school with 78-112 students. |
| 1990 | 1991 | Doherty is not indexed in the 1991 Directory, nor is he indexed in the Miami archdiocesan pages as at his previous or next assignments. | ||||
1991 John Clement Favalora followed McCarthy as Miami archbishop (1994-2010) |
April 2002 | St. Vincent's | Margate • In a lawsuit filed in 2005, a 19 year-old male accused Doherty of sexually abusing him from 1996-2000, beginning when he was 9 years old. Doherty is said to have plied the boy with alcohol and marijuana. • Another accuser reported that he met Doherty when he was 7 years old, and that the priest would have him do "private confessions" with him almost every day. He said Doherty would give him a soda that made him pass out, and that Doherty would then sexually assault him. He said the abuse went on for several years, until March 2000. • In 2007 another man filed suit alleging Doherty sexually abused him in 1999 when the man was 14 years-old. He said the abuse took place in Doherty's car and in St. Vincent's rectory. |
FL | 1/2, 1/3 | St. Vincent's had a religious education program with 210-120 students. Doherty was sent in 1992 to the Institute for Living in Hartford, CT for a psychological evaluation, the results of which were said to have indicated that Doherty should be removed from his role as parish priest. St. Vincent's church secretary under Doherty told criminal investigators it was "because he [was] dangerous, manipulative, a pathological liar and he is someone that will stop at nothing to get what he wants." She said also that the archdiocese knew for decades that Doherty was abusing boys. The secretary was put on leave in 2006 after her statements became known. The archdiocese denied she was removed in retaliation for her statements. |
| 2002 | 2004 | Doherty was placed on administrative leave in April 2002., per news reports. | ||||
| 2004 | 2010 | Retired | FL | Doherty is not indexed in the 2011 Directory. Doherty was arrested and charged in Jan. 2006 with child sexual abuse. His accuser filed had suit in 2005, claiming Doherty drugged and raped him beginning when he was 9 years old, from 1996-2000. |
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| 2006 | Jail |
• By November 2011 26 men had accused Doherty of drugging and raping them as children. |
FL | inmate | Doherty pleaded "no contest" in Jan. 2013 to six counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but was to serve little more than 12, due to time already served. |
Sources: Official Catholic Directory (New York: P.J. Kenedy and Sons, 1970-2010) • Church Kept Accused Priest on Job, By Daniel De Vise and Jay Weaver, Miami Herald [Miami FL], October 23, 2003
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