Criminals Galore: Welcome to Massachusetts

by Leslie C. Griffin^*

In my first Massachusetts blog post, I explained why reporting requirements, statutes of limitations, and charitable immunity blocked many lawsuits against Catholic abusers. Although some abusers escaped liability because of those protections, many Catholics were convicted of crimes. The list of criminals is incredible. I provide that list here so that there is a record of Catholic criminal abusers of children in the State of Massachusetts.

The worst and most recent story of a criminal not convicted is the cardinal. Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was charged by Massachusetts with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person under the age of 14, including repeated fondling of a 16-year-old at a wedding at Wellesley College in 1974. Survivors’ lawyer Mitchell Garabedian had filed earlier civil cases against the cardinal. McCarrick did not live in Massachusetts and so was unable to plead the statute of limitations. McCarrick now has been ruled incompetent to stand trial due to dementia.¹ A Wisconsin court also ruled that he could not be criminally prosecuted for sex abuse there because he “is too senile and unfit to attend a trial. Or so they say.” ²

Criminals are not always prosecuted. But sometimes they are, as this post demonstrates.

I: HOW MANY CRIMINALS ARE THERE?

1. Boston

The worst was prosecuted, but his conviction did not stick. Lead molester John Geoghan was strangled in prison in 2003 after he was sentenced to six years in prison for molesting a 10-year-old boy. Newspapers say he attacked at least 130-150 children over three decades.³ A different criminal case was pending in Suffolk County while Geoghan was in prison on the rape charge. Two charges had been filed, but one was dismissed after the victim refused to testify. Rape charges were dismissed in Commonwealth v. Geoghan, 14 Mass. L.Rptr. 331 (2002) over a dispute about a victim’s testimony about oral sex and the timing of the whole dispute. There was also a question of whether to freeze the time if Geoghan was away from Massachusetts. Geoghan’s conviction was erased after he died while appealing it. Victims protested this insult to all their suffering at Geoghan’s hands.⁴

Garabedian said 147 people had approached him after Geoghan’s death claiming they had been abused by Geoghan. He thought that two criminal cases against Geoghan would be dismissed because of his death but that the civil cases would continue.⁵

Paul M. Desilets, associate pastor at Our Lady of the Assumption parish in Bellingham from 1978 to 1984, was later accused of sexual assault by 18 boys. He pled guilty to 14 counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under age 14, 10 counts of indecent assault and battery and six counts of assault and battery, for which he received a sentence of one to one and a half years. He faced 10 years of probation after completing his sentence. He was extradited from Canada⁶ and returned there after his sentence ended.

Robert Gale, from St. Joseph’s Church in Quincy, was sentenced to four to five years in prison in 2004 after he pled guilty to raping an altar boy at a different Waltham parish during the 1980s. He had been transferred to another parish after the initial complaints. Gale was released from prison for good behavior in 2009, two months early, to the disappointment of one of his victims, Martin Crowley of Waltham. He was on probation for 25 years. He was defrocked by the church.⁷

Deacon Ricardo Gonzalez received a four-year-prison sentence for sexually assaulting children in the 1980s at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish and Our Lady of Assumption Parish in Eastie and in numerous places around the church. He “pled guilty to 10 counts of Rape, Indecent Assault and Battery of a Child Under the Age of 14 and Unlawful Dissemination of a Matter Harmful to Minors.”⁸ Two of Garabedian’s clients were victims from 1993 to 1995 when they were 12-14 years old.

Robert D. Fay was accused of molesting a teenager in the 1970s at a New Hampshire home, according to a lawsuit included in his archdiocesan personnel file. He denied the allegations. ⁹

John Hanlon was convicted of raping altar boys in 1994 and sentenced to three concurrent life terms. ¹⁰ A fourth life sentence was suspended. He assaulted altar boy William Wood in 1980 and 1981 at Scituate summer camp. There was also a possible lawsuit by Wood’s brother in Vermont.¹¹

Kelvin Iguabita was convicted in June 2003 of raping a 15-year-old girl while he was assigned to a church in Haverhill in 2000. He was sentenced to 12-14 years in prison. ¹²

Anthony J. Laurano died before he could face trial for the rape of an 8-year-old at St. Mary in Plymouth. He also would have been charged for raping a retarded neighbor in Hull.¹³

Martha Coakley failed in her prosecution of Paul Manning. Coakley, who later became Attorney General of Massachusetts, had also served on the cardinal’s committee against abuse. The victim refused to testify at trial, but fellow priest Paul Sughrue did testify against Manning.¹⁴ Manning was acquitted.

Gary J. Mercure was sentenced to 20+ years in 2011 for raping two altar boys. He was removed from priestly ministry after an earlier charge of abuse but, at this writing, is still a priest. He was also a defendant in a Vermont case that the court took jurisdiction over even though it involved the Roman Catholic diocese of Albany, New York. In the latter case, he was accused of rape of an 8- or 9-year-old in the rectory. ¹⁵ Mercure was accused of abuse in numerous states.

Richard McCormick was convicted of child rape at the Salesian Brothers’ Sacred Heart retreat center in Ipswich. The victim was 10-12 years old.¹⁶

Eugene M. O’Sullivan pled guilty to rape in 1984. He served no prison time but instead received a probation sentence because Bishop Robert Banks spoke in his favor. He was subsequently sent away by his church. ¹⁷ There was never any prison sentence for the rape. He was defrocked in 2005. ¹⁸

Ronald H. Paquin, ordained in 1973, pled guilty in 2002 to Massachusetts charges that he raped a 12-year-old altar boy between 1989 and 1992. Paquin pled guilty to three counts of child rape and received a 12- to 15-year prison sentence. The assistant district attorney had asked for 30-40 years. ¹⁹ Paquin was defrocked and removed from ministry. Paquin, who had admitted abuse of 14 boys, was released from prison in 2015 when he was 72 after doctors said he was not sexually dangerous.²⁰ Massachusetts prosecutors had no grounds on which to hold him after the doctors’ ruling that he was not dangerous; his sentence just ended. Victims complained about the release. One victim was Michael Emerton. Garabedian represented 12 men who had settled civil abuse claims against Paquin and said they did not understand why he was “given a free ticket to sexually abuse.” ²¹

Christopher Reardon, a Catholic lay worker, was prosecuted by Kevin Burke for raping and molesting more than 20 children. ²²

George Rosenkranz was accused several times of sexually abusing minors. He was then arrested for performing a lewd act in a men’s bathroom, but the charges against him were dismissed by a “friendly judge.” He was later arrested for lewd conversation and sexual assault.²³

William Scanlan spent time in 1986 at the therapeutic House of Affirmation because of complaints against him. One girl reported abuse by Scanlan starting when she was 12 years old; she attempted suicide after he raped her. A 1987 report said “he fools around with kids.” Scanlan is especially noteworthy because he went to work with the Veterans Office without offering a word about his abuse history. U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan wrote a lengthy letter complaining of Scanlan’s dishonesty with the Veterans Office and his disobedience of the law.²⁴ He accused the church, through its bishop, William Murphy, of withholding information about Scanlan from federal authorities when he became a Veteran Affairs chaplain in 1999. U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan agreed to end a grand jury investigation if the church improved its reporting requirements. ²⁵

Paul Shanley was convicted of abusing a 17-year-old in Newton and sentenced to 12-15 years in 2005.²⁶ In Commonwealth v. Shanley, 455 Mass. 752 (2010), Shanley was convicted of sexual abuse of a child, rape, and indecent assault and battery on someone under 14. The court rejected all Shanley’s claims and he did not get a new trial. In another case, there was a grant of evidence in 2002 allowing defendants to see some of the victims’ testimony.²⁷

Shanley was arrested in May 2002 for the child rape of Paul Busa, from Newton, who said Shanley abused him from 1983 to 1990, when he was 6 years old. When finally questioned, Shanley took the Fifth Amendment as his answer to every question. Cardinal Law’s defense of Shanley said the six-year-old boy and his parents were negligent and so contributed to the abuse.²⁸ What was the child’s negligence? The boy was appealing to the priest. Yes, the church made that awful argument. Shanley died in prison.

Patrick J. Tague, was convicted, with a suspended sentence, of stealing $30,000 from his facility in 1979. ²⁹

James Talbot, a Jesuit priest, pled guilty to rape, assault with intent to rape, and three counts of assault and battery against two students he taught and coached at Boston College High School in the 1970s. He received a five-to-seven-year sentence. The Jesuits lost a bid to block release of Talbot’s personnel files, arguing the files were part of an internal review of their religious relationship. In addition to Talbot’s, the names of three other Jesuits and one former Jesuit who taught at Boston College High School were turned over to prosecutors in Suffolk County. The names are Francis J. McManus, Stephen F. Dawber, Michael J. Kossak, and John H. Acres (the former Jesuit).³⁰ Talbot was removed from ministry in 1998, after molesting a student at Cheverus High School in Portland, Maine. Dawber, after a stint as principal of Cheverus during Talbot’s tenure, returned to Boston College and was suspended after an abuse allegation against him by a BC student.

Andrzej J. Urbaniak was arrested in 2012 for downloading and sending sexual images of children. He was charged with downloading pornography,³¹ and pled not guilty. He was immediately suspended by the Boston archdiocese.

2. Fall River

In Fall River, Donald J. Bowen was charged with indecent assault and battery of a girl under 14 and lascivious acts on a girl under 16. The case alleged he had repeatedly forced the girl into performing oral sex. He pled guilty in 2005 and was sentenced to two years in jail, 10 years’ probation, and registration as a sex offender.³² “He is also forbidden from living in a house with children, an apartment complex that houses children, can have no unsupervised contact with children, is prohibited from taking a job or volunteer position that may put him in contact with children and must register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.”³³ One victim, Catherine Murphy, spoke of the horrible long-term effects of the abuse. She said, “I felt that I was a tramp, a whore, a slut. I was very popular in high school, but was petrified of intimacy and cut off from all normal boy-girl relationships. … This man of the cloth robbed me of my childhood. I never experienced a first crush or a first kiss without thinking I was dirty.” ³⁴

Seminarian Alexander Delgado was acquitted of rape by a jury.³⁵ The rape victim later sued the Fall River diocese. She said the diocese knew he had molested another girl before he raped her. Bishop O’Malley, Rev. John Perry and Sister Joseph Marie Levesque also were defendants. ³⁶

Stephen A. Fernandes was arrested in 2004 for child pornography–650 pictures and 140 videos on his computer–and for exhibiting a child engaged in a sexual act. He pled guilty. In 2005, he was sentenced to eight months in prison, four years probation, and a $20,000 fine. He was laicized in 2008.³⁷ After his conviction, the bishop offered counseling to Fernandes’s victims. ³⁸

Mark R. Hession was indicted for rape and indecent assault of a person under 14 years old. He was suspended in 2019 for inappropriate communications with adult parishioners.³⁹ He pled not guilty on January 7, 2021, and his trial was set for October 5, 2021.⁴⁰ Priests are often powerful: Father Mark gave a homily at Senator Ted Kennedy’s funeral.⁴¹

James R. Porter, of southeastern Massachusetts, assaulted a twelve-year-old and six others. In 1992, Cardinal Bernard Law referred to him as “one depraved man” in a good church.⁴² He was sentenced in 1993 to 18-20 years in a Massachusetts prison after he pled guilty to abusing 28 children. ⁴³ The first priest to be caught and prosecuted in Massachusetts, ⁴⁴ he also faced numerous charges in Minnesota, New Mexico and Texas. ⁴⁵

Thomas E. O’Dea, who was in the same parish as James Porter, ⁴⁶ was accused of molestation by Arthur Trundy. Trundy also had accused Porter of abuse.⁴⁷ A sexual abuse review board found “insufficient evidence of improper activity” in O’Dea’s case. A reporter later criticized O’Dea’s mistreatment.⁴⁸

3. Springfield

In Springfield, the name of Danny Croteau may sound familiar to some of you. That 13-year-old boy was bludgeoned to death in Springfield, Massachusetts, on the Chicopee River, on April 15, 1972. The murder case remained open until 2021, almost 50 years later. The suspected murderer, former Catholic priest Richard R. Lavigne, was never charged. The story goes that Lavigne died just before he was about to be arrested.⁴⁹ The evidence was so clear, the prosecutor closed the case after Lavigne died.

Lavigne was the priest in Danny’s parish and was friends with his family. In 1992, he was convicted of child molestation—two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under age 14. He was sentenced to 10 years’ probation and seven months of mandatory sex-offender counseling and was named a Level 3 sex offender. He lost his priesthood in 2003.⁵⁰

Lavigne pled guilty to molesting three boys.⁵¹ But he never spent time in jail or paid fines for any of his wrongdoing. Bishop Christopher J. Weldon is alleged to have interfered with his prosecution.⁵²

Springfield found claims of abuse by George A. Berthiaume were not credible or not corroborated.⁵³

Gary LaMontagne pled guilty to indecent assault and received three years of probation for fondling a female employee.⁵⁴

Thomas Ludger Dupre was indicted on two counts of rape in 2004 but was not prosecuted due to the SOL. ⁵⁵

Leo Landry pled guilty to two abuse charges in Norfolk County.⁵⁶

4. Worcester

In Worcester, Brother Antonio F. Antonucci was acquitted in 1996 of fondling a 15-year-old boy. Antonucci was also in a lawsuit with Albert Liberatore in Pennsylvania. The court dismissed the aiding and abetting claim in that case. ⁵⁷

Brion T. Ares was acquitted of rape and mistried on indecent assault.⁵⁸

David L. Blizard was found not guilty of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14. ⁵⁹

Joseph Chu Cong was charged with sexual assault and found not guilty.⁶⁰

Joseph A. Coonan was accused of psychologically manipulating and sexually abusing 15 men before he was ordained. He was arrested for abuse of his mother and sister; those charges were dismissed. ⁶¹

Joseph Albert Fredette was convicted of sexual abuse and sentenced to three concurrent 4-5 year terms. He was released, and the Massachusetts Supreme Court later overturned the conviction. ⁶²

Jean-Paul Gagnon was arraigned for sexual assault of one adult male parishioner, and assault and battery another parishioner. ⁶³ He was sentenced to 18 months of supervised probation. ⁶⁴

David Holley, from Worcester, Massachusetts, was sentenced to a 275-year prison term in New Mexico for abuse of two cousins⁶⁵ 20 years after abusing Phil Saviano in Massachusetts.⁶⁶ Holley had groped the boys and made them give him oral sex. ⁶⁷

Robert E. Kelley went to prison on rape charges.⁶⁸

Brother Louis Laperle was acquitted of charges of sexual assault and battery, for conduct from 1968. ⁶⁹

Edward Nicewicz received a 1986 jail sentence for child rape and molestation in 1985.⁷⁰

Ronald Provost was convicted of taking nude pictures of boys. He argued that the boys were not completely nude, but the court ruled that “portions of his pubic and genital area are clearly visible. The statute does not require that the areas be completely uncovered.”⁷¹ Provost was sentenced to 10 years in prison; the sentence was suspended and he was put on five years of supervised probation. The diocese and bishop were not found liable.⁷²

John J. Szantyr was indicted in 2003 for three charges of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14. Earlier charges against him had been dropped. Stories reflect that Szantyr showed up in court looking frail, “slouched over, looking like a pathetic, crippled old man.” Yet Szantyr’s victim saw him six months later, walking around a rest area on the Massachusetts Turnpike, with full use of his body and looking strong.⁷³ The Patriot Ledger wrote an article about him called Father fraud.⁷⁴ A civil suit was filed in 2005, but he was ruled incompetent to stand trial.⁷⁵ He died with pending charges, which were dropped after he died. ⁷⁶

Thomas Teczar, ordained in 1967, was accused of fraud, misrepresentation and fraudulent concealment in Texas and was convicted in Texas of aggravated assault and indecency with a minor in Texas.⁷⁷

II: HOW MANY MORE WILL THERE BE?

Those are criminal cases against Massachusetts abusers. That’s all I know about. There may be more.

There is still a lot more to learn. Who was civilly liable to pay damages for the sexual abuse of children? My next blog post will introduce you to those cases.