Student Says Ex-Nun Forced Sex on Him

By Pete Donohue and Don Gentile with Rafael A. Olmeda
Daily News
March 2, 1996

An ex-nun accused of forcing a former Catholic grammar school student into a five-year sexual affair allegedly told her victim that she knew love would destroy her, a court transcript shows.

"My mother was right. She told me a long time ago I have too much love inside me, and love was going to ruin me," the woman, identified as Linda Baisi, says in a transcript of secretly recorded comments.

The transcript is among several taped conversations filed as evidence in a $ 150 million lawsuit the now 21-year-old victim filed last week against the Archdiocese of New York.

The former student charged that from age 12 to 17 he was forced to have sex with Baisi, his former homeroom teacher at St. Frances de Chantal parochial school in the Bronx.

His lawyer, Michael Dowd, charged that Baisi forced the student to have weekly sex at her home. Dowd said the forced sex left his client addicted to alcohol and drugs and needing psychiatric care.

Baisi has declined to comment on the case, and archdiocese officials said the allegations are under investigation.

The former student made the tapes several weeks ago in telephone conversations and at least one face-to-face meeting with Baisi, who is now the principal at St. Frances.

According to one transcript, Baisi tried to prevent him from revealing her name to a psychiatrist. "What did you tell him? . . . You didn't say a teacher? . . . You didn't say anybody with the Church?" she was quoted as saying.

"Just tell him nothing happened. Tell him it was an older chick. Tell them you never had intercourse or anything."

The transcripts show Baisi threatened to commit suicide if the affair became public:

"I know if [it] comes down to it, I'll kill myself . . . I wish I could just drive my car and go over to the water and die."

Parents of students at the Bronx school at first expressed skepticism about the allegations against the popular principal. But after portions of the tapes were aired on ABC News' "PrimeTime Live" this week, some said they had changed their minds.

"I didn't believe it at first," said Pete Tacinelli, 39, who has two children attending St. Frances. "But now, after hearing those tapes, I believe it."