Church Pays $200k to Settle Molest Claim against Priest Who Produced, Sold Videos of Speedoclad Young Wrestlers, Smoking Gun, October 25, 2011

Church Pays $200k to Settle Molest Claim against Priest Who Produced, Sold Videos of Speedo-clad Young Wrestlers

Smoking Gun
October 25, 2011

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/wrestling-priest-molest-settlement-453891

Nine years after a New Jersey priest was first exposed for peddling videos of Speedo-clad boys wrestling, church officials have agreed to pay $200,000 to settle a man’s claims that the reverend molested him when he was a teenage grappler.

The June 2011 settlement reached between the victim and officials with the Byzantine Catholic Church involved allegations leveled against Rev. Glenn Michael Davidowich, 48, who served at St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Trenton when the alleged abuse occurred about 20 years ago.

The settlement was first reported by Star-Ledger reporter Mark Mueller.

A copy of the settlement agreement, with the victim’s name redacted, was provided to TSG by Mitchell Garabedian, the accuser’s lawyer. Along with the six-figure payout, the Byzantine church also agreed to pay the man’s “outstanding therapy and pharmaceutical bills” as well as prescription and counseling costs through mid-2016.

According to Garabedian, his client was molested by Davidowich over a three-year period beginning in 1989, when he was 15. The victim, he said, was assaulted by Davidowich in a New Jersey church rectory as well as in the boy's own home. Garabedian added that Davidowich wrestled with the boy and filmed him grappling with other teens.

After relocating to Pennsylvania from New Jersey, Davidowich (pictured above) moved to Wisconsin, where he currently shares an address in Manitowoc with Tony Karl, who works as “music director/worship coordinator” at St. James Episcopal Church. In a December 2010 Advent newsletter prepared by Karl, Davidowich is referred to as a “Byzantine Catholic priest residing in Manitowoc.”