Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, best known for representing victims in the Boston Catholic priest sex abuse scandal, has issued a statement regarding two sisters who suffered abuse at the hands of a priest in Bronx, NY.  The statement is reproduced verbatim below.

I represent two sisters who were repeatedly sexually abused for years by Fr. Charles G. McDonagh who was at the time assigned to Our Lady of Refuge Parish in the Bronx, NY. Fr. McDonagh later became Secretary to Cardinal Cooke and Secretary to Cardinal O’Connor.

These clergy sexual abuse claims illustrate clever grooming by Fr. Charles G. McDonagh and immoral secrecy by Fr. Benedict Groeschel, which typically exists within the Catholic Church. (See below.)

Fr. McDonagh groomed the victims by becoming a trusted member of the family before sexually abusing these innocent female children. In approximately 1989 the abuse was reported to Fr. Benedict Groeschel by the mother of the children but the secrecy continued and Fr. McDonagh was never held accountable.

The sexual abuse claim of one claimant was settled in the high five figures and the claim of the other claimant was settled in the low six figures.

Mr. Garabedian has represented many Cape Cod victims of sexual abuse over the years.  He is most recently involvement was as representative of the man who accused actor Kevin Spacey of sexual assault in a Nantucket nightclub.  Prosecution was recently dropped in that matter and the accuser withdrew a civil action he had filed against the actor.