"Peeping" Mass. Priest Suspended

By Tom Mashberg
Boston Herald
August 22, 2004

The Archdiocese of Boston suspended a Weymouth priest yesterday amid allegations he watched teenage girls undress while serving as a minister to the hearing impaired at the defunct Boston School for the Deaf in Randolph.

The Rev.Charles J. Murphy, 61, head of the apostolate for the deaf at St. Francis Xavier Church in Weymouth and a chaplain at Norfolk State Prison, agreed to the move, said archdiocese spokesman the Rev. Christopher J. Coyne.

Murphy could not be reached for comment, but in May, when the allegations first surfaced in a lawsuit filed by Violet Guertin, 41, of Rockland, his lawyer, George C. McMahon of Quincy, said Murphy "absolutely denies'' the charges.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represents Guertin and other hearing-impaired students who attended the school, said "this is a positive move in that it will protect other children from abuse.''