Records Say Diocese Admits Knowledge of Abuse: Lawyer
By LEANNE GENDREAU and STAFF REPORTS
Updated 11:15 AM EST, Wed, Nov 25, 2009
The Bridgeport Catholic Diocese admits in court documents that it has secret files with details about 32 claims of sexual abuse that eight priests are accused of committing over three decades at St. Theresa's in Trumbull, an attorney for the case said in a news release.
The files are part of a case in Superior Court in Waterbury to determine whether attorneys for the estate of the late Michael Powell can get the documents as part of a lawsuit against the diocese, the Hartford Courant reports.
The lawsuit claims that the diocese was aware that it employed Carlo Fabbozzi, a maintenance man who allegedly molested Powell more than 50 times between 1968 to 1972 and that the priest responsible for supervising Fabbozzi, the Rev. Joseph Gorecki, also molested Powell, the Courant reports.
"This is a public safety nightmare," J. Michael Reck, an attorney for victims in the Bridgeport Diocese, said in a news release. "First, the Diocese went all the way to the Supreme Court to keep their files secret. Now, even though their own documents show that their parishes were networks of child sexual abusers, they don't think it's important to alert the communities of the danger."
Reck's expertise includes several sexual abuse cases in California.
The diocese responded by saying that Powell’s primary allegation was not that he was a victim of priestly sexual abuse and that the allegations were based on memories he recovered in 2000.
The diocese says that in 2002, Powell sued a man alleged to own a lawn company and be a parish employee, accusing him of sexual molestation, according to the diocese.
He was not able to collect on the judgment and filed a new lawsuit in 2006, claiming that because the man was an employee of the Diocese of Bridgeport, it "should somehow be responsible because the lawn man injured his employee,” the diocese said in a release.
The diocese went on to state that “none of the priests from this parish who were found to have abused a child remains in ministry.”
First Published: Nov 25, 2009 8:07 AM EST
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