17 Suits Name Former Priest in Sex Abuse

By the New York Times
October 4, 2002

Boston, October 3 -- The defrocked priest at the center of a sexual abuse scandal here was named as a defendant today in 17 new civil lawsuits, filed by men who say he sexually abused them as children.

The plaintiffs said the abuse by the former priest, John J. Geoghan, took place from 1964 to 1996, when they were 7 to 15 years old. Mr. Geoghan is serving a 9-to-10-year sentence for groping a 10-year-old boy in 1991.

Mitchell Garabedian, the plaintiffs' lawyer, said they, including one plaintiff who is now 17, were groped, molested and raped.

The lawsuits also implicate 20 other clergy members who worked with Mr. Geoghan or supervised him. They include Cardinal Bernard F. Law, Bishop William Murphy, and retired Bishop Joseph Maguire of the Diocese of Springfield, Mass., who are named as defendants in two suits each, and Bishop Thomas V. Daily, who is named in six of the suits.

Mr. Garabedian said that 141 claims, most of them now settled, had been brought against Mr. Geoghan since 1994. Today's suits, with two filed in June, bring to 19 the number of civil suits pending against him. Last month Mr. Garabedian reached a $10 million settlement with the Archdiocese of Boston in 86 cases against Mr. Geoghan.

Mr. Geoghan also has two criminal trials pending, one set to begin Dec. 2. He is charged with two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child in one trial and two counts of child rape in the other.

Mr. Garabedian, who declined to discuss any possible settlements of the latest suits, said evidence would show that while Mr. Geoghan was supposedly on sick leave from St. Joseph's parish in Boston's Hyde Park neighborhood, he was actually being considered for work in another parish while being treated for pedophilia.

A spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Boston, Donna Morrissey, said, "We haven't seen the lawsuits that have been filed, but we are committed to settling all lawsuits in a fair and equitable manner."

One plaintiff, Douglas Fage, 45, says he was groped at age 10 or 11 by Mr. Geoghan at St. Paul's in Hingham, Mass. He said he was bringing suit against Mr. Geoghan for the safety of children, including his 16-year-old son.

"Hopefully with all this coming out I won't have to worry about my son going into a church," Mr. Fage said.

[Photo Caption: John J. Geoghan, a defrocked priest, is again accused of abuse. (Pool Photo by Kevin Wisniewski)]