Delaware Jury Weighs Clergy Sex Abuse Claims

By Randall Chase
WDEL
November 18, 2013

http://www.wdel.com/story.php?id=55091

A federal court jury in Delaware has awarded more than $2.4 million to a man who says he was abused as a boy more than 30 years ago by a cleric who worked in the Archdiocese of New York.

After two hours of deliberation, the jury ruled in favor of 44-year-old Brian Elliott, who claimed he was repeatedly molested by Brother Damian Galligan, including while in Delaware during a trip from Elliott's New Jersey home to Virginia in 1981.

Galligan is 86 and lives in a Missouri retirement facility. He has denied the allegations but is not defending himself, saying he's in poor health and doesn't have the strength to do so.

Jurors heard testimony Monday from Elliott and from Peter Marghella, another alleged victim of Galligan who recently became director of the New York State Office of Emergency Management.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.