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Two Roman Catholic priests who until recently lived on the campus of Fordham Preparatory School in the Bronx sexually abused teenagers there in the 1960s and ’70s, two groups that advocate for sex-abuse victims said on Tuesday.

Leaders of the two groups — the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests and BishopAccountability.org. — who said they were making the accusations public for the first time, criticized the school’s administrators for allowing the priests to reside there for years after the abuse complaints were made known.

One of the priests, the Rev. Eugene O’Brien, was the principal and president of Fordham Prep in the early ’70s, when one accuser said he was molested, the groups said. A lawsuit the accuser filed was settled in 1997 for $25,000 by the school, the Archdiocese of New York and the Order of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, which runs Fordham Prep.

The advocacy groups sent to The New York Times a copy of the settlement agreement, with the accuser’s name excised. Father O’Brien could not be reached for comment.

The other priest, the Rev. Roy A. Drake, was a science teacher at Fordham Prep in late 1968 when he raped Richard Cerick, Mr. Cerick says. In an interview, Mr. Cerick, who was not a Fordham student, said he had been invited by a friend who attended the school to join him for a weekend ski trip with Father Drake. He said the attack occurred in the priest’s apartment on campus the night before they left on the trip.

Joseph Zwilling, spokesman for the archdiocese, said that archdiocesan lawyers were familiar with Mr. Cerick’s claim against Father Drake, but that he could not confirm the terms of the 1997 settlement involving Father O’Brien. In general, Mr. Zwilling said, religious orders like the Jesuits handled their own personnel and legal affairs.

The Rev. Thomas Slon, executive assistant to the head of the Jesuit order in the New York area, said he would not comment on the accusations. He, too, said that he was familiar with Mr. Cerick’s complaint, but that he would not confirm or deny the terms of the 1997 settlement concerning Father O’Brien.

Mr. Cerick, now a 53-year-old New York lawyer, said he had kept the incident secret until 2003, when he became aware of the scandal over sexual abuse by priests. He began searching the Web for any mention of Father Drake. After discovering that the priest was living at Murray-Weigel Hall, the Fordham Prep residence for Jesuit faculty members, he said, he decided to alert the school’s administrators. He filed his first complaint against Father Drake in 2005, he said.

Father Drake was transferred to a treatment center for troubled priests in 2006, and died on Aug. 21 of this year, said Terry McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org. Father Slon, of the Jesuits, would not confirm that Father Drake had died.

Father O’Brien, after serving as president of Fordham Prep from 1960 until 1979, was principal at Fairfield College Prep, in Fairfield, Conn.; vice president for community relations at Fordham University; and president of the Gregorian University Foundation in New York, a Jesuit institute. He became known for his work in substance abuse treatment, traveling and lecturing around the world between stints at Fordham University and LeMoyne College in Syracuse. He is now retired, Mr. McKiernan said.

In a statement, Mr. Cerick said that after he reported Father Drake to Jesuit and archdiocesan authorities three years ago, “they allowed Father Drake, who lived and worked for decades on Fordham’s campus after abusing me, to continue working and residing there.”

“That is incomprehensible,” he said. “The innocent deserve protection.”

David Clohessey, national director of the Survivors Network, or SNAP, said that the church’s failure to protect the young from sexual predators was part of a pattern of “secrecy and recklessness” that has plagued the institution for decades.

I am just now catching up with this news. I lived in fear of Fr. O’Brien. As a young man grappling with his sexuality, O’Brien was a predator and the rumors were rampant about his exploits. He was so powerful that for all of the rumors, no one dared speak or hear the truth for many years. I was warned by a brave faculty member to avoid any approaches by O’Brien, particularly to join his “prayer retreats to Saranac Lake.” Many to this day will deny O’Brien’s abuses and defend him, I’m sure. Everything said here confirms what I heard from students and teachers in my time at the Prep (’71-’75).

The Church only answers questions that could expose it to legal damages when compelled to do so by plaintiff attorneys.

It will do nothing to raise the consciousness of victims of Fr. O’Brien to his being held liable at law already by one victim. To do so would lead those victims to hire attorneys and form alliances to develop the proofs needed to prosecute more damage cases against Fr. O’Brien for sexual predation during his long tenure as headmaster of Fordham Prep.

It will say nothing and do nothing. It will be, “unavailable for comment”, up until the moment that its predators are summoned at law to answer the damaging questions. Then it will answer, but its answers will be couched in apologies and reqret and solicitude for the victims who have forced it to answer. A solicitude that never appeared before the threat of monetary damages darkened its horizon.

Mealy-mouthed, fulsome mea culpas as a tactic for reducing monetary awards for damages caused by predatory priests whose behavior it has been forced by law to address after doing everything possible for years to ignore and obscure their crimes.

It is Church s.o.p. That confrontation and revelation has not yet occurred with Father O’Brien and his victims so the Church stands mute. The mealy-mouthedness will begin if his victims ever get their legal act together enough to prize him from his hidey-hole and compel him to testify.

I am just now catching up with this news. I lived in fear of Fr. O’Brien. As a young man grappling with his sexuality, O’Brien was a predator and the rumors were rampant about his exploits. He was so powerful that for all of the rumors, no one dared speak or hear the truth for many years. I was warned by a brave faculty member to avoid any approaches by O’Brien, particularly to join his “prayer retreats to Saranac Lake.” Many to this day will deny O’Brien’s abuses and defend him, I’m sure. Everything said here confirms what I heard from students and teachers in my time at the Prep (’71-’75).

Jesuits, Diocese Asked to Help Sex Abuse Victims

By Genevieve Reilly
Connecticut Post
October 15, 2009

http://www.connpost.com/ci_13572777" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

FAIRFIELD — Standing in the cold rain Thursday at the entrance to the Fairfield University campus, two members of SNAP — Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests — called on the Jesuits and Catholic diocese to seek out and offer help to alleged abuse victims of Douglas Perlitz and the Rev. Eugene J. O'Brien.

Perlitz, 39, is the Fairfield University graduate who is accused of abusing nine boys at a school he ran in Haiti. O'Brien served as principal at Fairfield Prep in the mid-1980s. SNAP said O'Brien reached a settlement with an abuse victim from the Bronx, N.Y., in 1997, but Prep officials continued to say nothing even after that settlement was made public.

Perlitz has pleaded not guilty to seven charges of traveling overseas to engage in sexual conduct with minors and three charges of engaging in illegal sexual conduct with minors. Each charge carries a maximum 30-year prison term.

"We want to raise awareness about O'Brien and Perlitz," SNAP member and abuse victim Jim Hackett said. "We're concerned there might be other victims out there."

On Thursday, U.S. District Magistrate Judge Joan G. Margolis postponed Perlitz's detention hearing, scheduled for Monday, until Oct. 28 at the request of his lawyers.

William F. Dow III, who with David Grudberg represents Perlitz, said they need more time to address the judge's concerns.

Margolis indicated she would release Perlitz on approximately $5 million bond which must come, in part,

from Connecticut residents. Family members in New Canaan, Colorado and Illinois have raised about $2.3 million. She also wanted additional third-party custodians, besides Anthony and Laura Sirianni, of Fairfield, to watch Perlitz. Anthony Sirianni is a retired lawyer who is wheelchair-bound while battling multiple sclerosis.

"We continue to be impressed with the overwhelming support Doug has received," Dow said.

Other groups, like the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network and Voice of the Faithful, a group which advocates for victims sexually abused by clergy, have mounted a letter-writing campaign to prevent Perlitz's release.

Margolis has received numerous e-mails and letters on the issue, including one from Paul Kendrick, a 1972 graduate of the university, who urged the judge not to grant a bond to Perlitz because of the seriousness of the charges. "Please know that I am acutely aware that each of us is entitled to the presumption of innocence, but children have rights, too. Children depend upon caring, concerned and loving adults to protect them from potential harm," Kendrick wrote.

Another SNAP member, Gail Howard, said Perlitz should not be allowed out on bail when he goes before a judge in New Haven next week. "This man should never be in the community," she said.

If let out on bail, Howard and Hackett said they fear Perlitz could flee the country or intimidate witnesses, destroy evidence and molest others.

Howard said their requests to the Jesuits has gone unanswered. But, "anytime there's a news story, at least two or three more victims come forward," Hackett said.

They said they want the Jesuits, both the Bridgeport and New York dioceses, Fairfield Prep and university, and Fordham Prep and university to "use their considerable resources — including Web sites, newsletters, parish bulletins and newspapers — to seek out and offer help to victims of Perlitz and O'Brien."

"We all know what's right here," the SNAP statement said. "It's right for school and church officials to aggressively reach out to others who've been hurt by either man. It's right for school and church officials to actively help police and prosecutors pursue them. And it's not right for school and church officials to duck, dodge and dissemble."

Jesuit School Sheltered Molesters, Groups Say

By Paul Vitello
New York Times
October 21, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/22/nyreg ... rdham.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Two Roman Catholic priests who until recently lived on the campus of Fordham Preparatory School in the Bronx sexually abused teenagers there in the 1960s and ’70s, two groups that advocate for sex-abuse victims said on Tuesday.

Leaders of the two groups — the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests and BishopAccountability.org. — who said they were making the accusations public for the first time, criticized the school’s administrators for allowing the priests to reside there for years after the abuse complaints were made known.

One of the priests, the Rev. Eugene O’Brien, was the principal and president of Fordham Prep in the early ’70s, when one accuser said he was molested, the groups said. A lawsuit the accuser filed was settled in 1997 for $25,000 by the school, the Archdiocese of New York and the Order of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, which runs Fordham Prep.

The advocacy groups sent to The New York Times a copy of the settlement agreement, with the accuser’s name excised. Father O’Brien could not be reached for comment.

The other priest, the Rev. Roy A. Drake, was a science teacher at Fordham Prep in late 1968 when he raped Richard Cerick, Mr. Cerick says. In an interview, Mr. Cerick, who was not a Fordham student, said he had been invited by a friend who attended the school to join him for a weekend ski trip with Father Drake. He said the attack occurred in the priest’s apartment on campus the night before they left on the trip.

Joseph Zwilling, spokesman for the archdiocese, said that archdiocesan lawyers were familiar with Mr. Cerick’s claim against Father Drake, but that he could not confirm the terms of the 1997 settlement involving Father O’Brien. In general, Mr. Zwilling said, religious orders like the Jesuits handled their own personnel and legal affairs.

The Rev. Thomas Slon, executive assistant to the head of the Jesuit order in the New York area, said he would not comment on the accusations. He, too, said that he was familiar with Mr. Cerick’s complaint, but that he would not confirm or deny the terms of the 1997 settlement concerning Father O’Brien.

Mr. Cerick, now a 53-year-old New York lawyer, said he had kept the incident secret until 2003, when he became aware of the scandal over sexual abuse by priests. He began searching the Web for any mention of Father Drake. After discovering that the priest was living at Murray-Weigel Hall, the Fordham Prep residence for Jesuit faculty members, he said, he decided to alert the school’s administrators. He filed his first complaint against Father Drake in 2005, he said.

Father Drake was transferred to a treatment center for troubled priests in 2006, and died on Aug. 21 of this year, said Terry McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org. Father Slon, of the Jesuits, would not confirm that Father Drake had died.

Father O’Brien, after serving as president of Fordham Prep from 1960 until 1979, was principal at Fairfield College Prep, in Fairfield, Conn.; vice president for community relations at Fordham University; and president of the Gregorian University Foundation in New York, a Jesuit institute. He became known for his work in substance abuse treatment, traveling and lecturing around the world between stints at Fordham University and LeMoyne College in Syracuse. He is now retired, Mr. McKiernan said.

In a statement, Mr. Cerick said that after he reported Father Drake to Jesuit and archdiocesan authorities three years ago, “they allowed Father Drake, who lived and worked for decades on Fordham’s campus after abusing me, to continue working and residing there.”

“That is incomprehensible,” he said. “The innocent deserve protection.”

David Clohessey, national director of the Survivors Network, or SNAP, said that the church’s failure to protect the young from sexual predators was part of a pattern of “secrecy and recklessness” that has plagued the institution for decades.

D1B wrote:"Duck, Dodge and Disemble" O'Brien active in Conn.

Jesuits, Diocese Asked to Help Sex Abuse Victims

By Genevieve Reilly
Connecticut Post
October 15, 2009

http://www.connpost.com/ci_13572777" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

FAIRFIELD — Standing in the cold rain Thursday at the entrance to the Fairfield University campus, two members of SNAP — Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests — called on the Jesuits and Catholic diocese to seek out and offer help to alleged abuse victims of Douglas Perlitz and the Rev. Eugene J. O'Brien.

Perlitz, 39, is the Fairfield University graduate who is accused of abusing nine boys at a school he ran in Haiti. O'Brien served as principal at Fairfield Prep in the mid-1980s. SNAP said O'Brien reached a settlement with an abuse victim from the Bronx, N.Y., in 1997, but Prep officials continued to say nothing even after that settlement was made public.

Perlitz has pleaded not guilty to seven charges of traveling overseas to engage in sexual conduct with minors and three charges of engaging in illegal sexual conduct with minors. Each charge carries a maximum 30-year prison term.

"We want to raise awareness about O'Brien and Perlitz," SNAP member and abuse victim Jim Hackett said. "We're concerned there might be other victims out there."

On Thursday, U.S. District Magistrate Judge Joan G. Margolis postponed Perlitz's detention hearing, scheduled for Monday, until Oct. 28 at the request of his lawyers.

William F. Dow III, who with David Grudberg represents Perlitz, said they need more time to address the judge's concerns.

Margolis indicated she would release Perlitz on approximately $5 million bond which must come, in part,

from Connecticut residents. Family members in New Canaan, Colorado and Illinois have raised about $2.3 million. She also wanted additional third-party custodians, besides Anthony and Laura Sirianni, of Fairfield, to watch Perlitz. Anthony Sirianni is a retired lawyer who is wheelchair-bound while battling multiple sclerosis.

"We continue to be impressed with the overwhelming support Doug has received," Dow said.

Other groups, like the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network and Voice of the Faithful, a group which advocates for victims sexually abused by clergy, have mounted a letter-writing campaign to prevent Perlitz's release.

Margolis has received numerous e-mails and letters on the issue, including one from Paul Kendrick, a 1972 graduate of the university, who urged the judge not to grant a bond to Perlitz because of the seriousness of the charges. "Please know that I am acutely aware that each of us is entitled to the presumption of innocence, but children have rights, too. Children depend upon caring, concerned and loving adults to protect them from potential harm," Kendrick wrote.

Another SNAP member, Gail Howard, said Perlitz should not be allowed out on bail when he goes before a judge in New Haven next week. "This man should never be in the community," she said.

If let out on bail, Howard and Hackett said they fear Perlitz could flee the country or intimidate witnesses, destroy evidence and molest others.

Howard said their requests to the Jesuits has gone unanswered. But, "anytime there's a news story, at least two or three more victims come forward," Hackett said.

They said they want the Jesuits, both the Bridgeport and New York dioceses, Fairfield Prep and university, and Fordham Prep and university to "use their considerable resources — including Web sites, newsletters, parish bulletins and newspapers — to seek out and offer help to victims of Perlitz and O'Brien."

"We all know what's right here," the SNAP statement said. "It's right for school and church officials to aggressively reach out to others who've been hurt by either man. It's right for school and church officials to actively help police and prosecutors pursue them. And it's not right for school and church officials to duck, dodge and dissemble."

JoltinJoe wrote:

D1B wrote:"Duck, Dodge and Disemble" O'Brien active in Conn.

Hey, DumB, thanks for finding this article which confirms my statement that there was has been only one (highly dubious) accusation against Fr. O'Brien EVER, and settled for "nuisance value."

You're so stupid you do my work for me.

Jesuit School Sheltered Molesters, Groups Say
By PAUL VITELLO
Published: October 21, 2008
Two Roman Catholic priests who until recently lived on the campus of Fordham Preparatory School in the Bronx sexually abused teenagers there in the 1960s and ’70s, two groups that advocate for sex-abuse victims said on Tuesday.

JoltinJoe wrote:

D1B wrote:"Duck, Dodge and Disemble" O'Brien active in Conn.

Hey, DumB, thanks for finding this article which confirms my statement that there was has been only one (highly dubious) accusation against Fr. O'Brien EVER, and settled for "nuisance value."

You're so stupid you do my work for me.

89Hen wrote:Why are you taking the bait Joe?

Jesuit School Sheltered Molesters, Groups Say
By PAUL VITELLO
Published: October 21, 2008
Two Roman Catholic priests who until recently lived on the campus of Fordham Preparatory School in the Bronx sexually abused teenagers there in the 1960s and ’70s, two groups that advocate for sex-abuse victims said on Tuesday.

D is bored again.

JoltinJoe wrote:

89Hen wrote:Why are you taking the bait Joe?


D is bored again.

I just adding the history to this old "news" story, since I am familiar with it. Because these accusations were paper thin, it died a pretty quick death. In fact, not even a single other NY news outlet picked up this "scoop" (fed to it by $NAP) of the ever pliable NY Times. BTW, here is an interesting read, "Gray Lady Down: The Decline and Fall of the NY Times," on how the present NY Times squandered the greatest legacy in American journalism:

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

D1B wrote:

JoltinJoe wrote:
I just adding the history to this old "news" story, since I am familiar with it. Because these accusations were paper thin, it died a pretty quick death. In fact, not even a single other NY news outlet picked up this "scoop" (fed to it by $NAP) of the ever pliable NY Times. BTW, here is an interesting read, "Gray Lady Down: The Decline and Fall of the NY Times," on how the present NY Times squandered the greatest legacy in American journalism:

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mealy Mouth attacking the source. Yawn and .

What do you know about Drake?

JoltinJoe wrote:

D1B wrote:
Mealy Mouth attacking the source. Yawn and .

What do you know about Drake?

Drake's dead. He taught at Fordham Prep in the 1960s. Was never accused but for this one guy in 2005. He was removed from the Fordham Prep Jesuit residence hall shortly after the accusation was first made, and sent for treatment. He died within the year. I assume the fact that he was sent for treatment indicates there were grounds to believe the accusation was credible. On the other hand, Fr. O'Brien has never been credibly accused, as the paltry settlement amount of $25,000 reflects. You more than anyone know that a credible claim nets in the area of $1 million from a solvent party like Fordham Prep.

JoltinJoe wrote:Current news. University of Northern Iowa lawyers' intrusive investigation into the life of a female student sexually assaulted by two football players:

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2011/09/1 ... ctims-life" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

D1B wrote:Also good to see that they've agreed to make "every good faith effort" to resolve the civil dispute.

Thanks Joe for bringing this to our attention.

JoltinJoe wrote:

D1B wrote:Also good to see that they've agreed to make "every good faith effort" to resolve the civil dispute.

Thanks Joe for bringing this to our attention.

Attorneys defending the University of Northern Iowa are heavily scrutinizing the life of a former student who was sexually assaulted by two football players in 2004 and is now accusing the school in a civil lawsuit of mistreating her and mismanaging its athletics department, court records show.

The Iowa Attorney General's Office has been seeking details of the woman's history on social media sites like Facebook since 2003, years of her cell phone records and personal photos and records detailing her mental health treatment before and after the assault, records show. In addition, the office has repeatedly asked for records about her employment as a dancer at a strip club, a copy of her personal journal, and documentation related to her father's mysterious death when she was a young child.

D1B wrote:Just found out the president of bishopaccountability.org is a 1971 Fordham Prep alum.

http://www.nyclergyabuse.com/documents/ ... e%20-5.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

D1B wrote:

JoltinJoe wrote:
Attorneys defending the University of Northern Iowa are heavily scrutinizing the life of a former student who was sexually assaulted by two football players in 2004 and is now accusing the school in a civil lawsuit of mistreating her and mismanaging its athletics department, court records show.

The Iowa Attorney General's Office has been seeking details of the woman's history on social media sites like Facebook since 2003, years of her cell phone records and personal photos and records detailing her mental health treatment before and after the assault, records show. In addition, the office has repeatedly asked for records about her employment as a dancer at a strip club, a copy of her personal journal, and documentation related to her father's mysterious death when she was a young child.

Absolutely shameful if this is true. One would hope they would treat her better. I'll be keeping a close eye on this.

Again, glad to see that both sides are making "every good faith effort" to resolve this, both parties are answering questions and talking to the media and most important - the criminal perps were quickly put in prison and not secretly transfered to Fordham or Boston College to cover up their crimes.

JoltinJoe wrote:

D1B wrote:
Absolutely shameful if this is true. One would hope they would treat her better. I'll be keeping a close eye on this.

Again, glad to see that both sides are making "every good faith effort" to resolve this, both parties are answering questions and talking to the media and most important - the criminal perps were quickly put in prison and not secretly transfered to Fordham or Boston College to cover up their crimes.

Do you actually read what you write? In one breath, you acknowledge that UNI's lawyers are brutalizing this woman in the litigation, but you you're fine because you claim that both sides are making "every good faith effort" to resolve this. ( for you).

You've become even easier pickins' than you use to be.