A change in Maine law prompts a wave of new church abuse allegations – The Boston Globe

The elimination of the statute of limitations was a salve for folks like Robert Dupuis, 73, who stated he was abused by a priest when he was 12 years previous and had by no means been capable of confront the church as an grownup. In June, he filed go well with towards the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland.

Dupuis is much from alone.

His lawyer, Michael Bigos, head of the intercourse abuse observe at Berman & Simmons in Lewiston, stated his agency is representing “roughly 100″ purchasers who at the moment are capable of carry claims towards the Catholic Church and different defendants. Greater than half of these purchasers, Bigos stated, allege abuse by Catholic Church personnel, together with monks.

Boston legal professional Mitchell Garabedian, the longtime advocate for clergy intercourse abuse victims, stated he represents about 20 purchasers whose claims towards the Catholic Church in Maine are attainable due to the modification.

The Diocese of Portland is trying to go off the lawsuits by difficult the modification itself. In November, the diocese’s attorneys argued in court docket filings that the modification was unconstitutional below Maine legislation as a result of it retroactively eradicated statutes of limitations that had already expired. If the problem succeeds, lawsuits made attainable by the modification must be dismissed.

Attorneys representing Dupuis and different plaintiffs say they intend to rebut the diocese’s argument in court docket in January.

The diocese didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark final week.

Dmitry Bam, vice dean and provost on the College of Maine College of Regulation, stated that current Maine precedents appeared to favor the church’s place, however that the query has not been definitively settled.

The authorized dispute is predicted to succeed in the Maine Supreme Court docket, which may resolve the case this yr. Till then, dozens of claims will stay in limbo.

The trouble to go the modification was set in movement after state Consultant Lori Gramlich heard a radio phase a couple of related transfer in New York. “That resonated with me as a result of I’m a survivor of kid intercourse abuse,” she stated.

Like many survivors, she had reached center age with out coming ahead concerning the abuse inflicted on her by her late stepfather, she stated. “We all know that the common age for survivors to come back ahead is 52,” she stated, citing a 2014 research by German researchers.

In 2000, the Maine Legislature handed a legislation that indefinitely prolonged the statute of limitations for many civil claims about youngster intercourse abuse alleged to have occurred since 1987. However that legislation couldn’t assist folks with older claims, whose statutes of limitations had already expired.

Final yr Gramlich launched a invoice that will retroactively remove the statute of limitations for all instances of kid intercourse abuse. Now even folks of their 80s who had been abused within the Nineteen Fifties may carry claims.

Since September 2021, when the legislation went into impact, older survivors have come ahead with claims towards a variety of defendants, together with summer time camps, a state prosecutor, and the Boy Scouts of America. Many have stated in information conferences and interviews that what they need, greater than a money settlement, is belated accountability for the folks and establishments they are saying harmed them. (The modification consists of some exceptions for presidency businesses.)

“My motivation for placing [this amendment] in was not about lawsuits,” Gramlich stated. “It was about justice.”

Dupuis was 12 years previous when he began doing odd jobs for the Rev. John J. Curran at St. Joseph Church in Outdated City. It was pure for Dupuis to hunt work there, he stated, as a result of for his French-speaking household dwelling in a small central Maine group, “the church was every thing.”

Within the fall of 1961, Curran periodically instructed Dupuis to affix him in a big closet the place Curran had positioned a chair, in keeping with the lawsuit filed by Dupuis. (Curran known as the closet his workplace, the go well with stated.) There, Curran allegedly pulled Dupuis’s buttocks towards his crotch and touched Dupuis’s genitals over clothes. After the abuse, the priest would pay Dupuis his wages, the lawsuit stated.

Finally, Curran dismissed Dupuis from the church job and informed Dupuis’s friends he was “unreliable,” the lawsuit stated. At the least two different males have stated Curran, who died in 1976, sexually abused them after they have been kids, in keeping with information reviews and investigative information launched by the Maine legal professional basic.

The abuse, which Dupuis would maintain secret for practically 50 years, wreaked havoc on his life, he stated in an interview. It might have contributed to his alcoholism and it left him with crippling belief points, he stated.

“I by no means actually had any friendships,” Dupuis stated. “Even my spouse and I by no means turned mates till I went to restoration.”

In 2006, when he was 57, he started a restoration from alcoholism and informed members of the family concerning the alleged abuse, he stated. The subsequent yr, Dupuis spoke out publicly as a part of a profitable push to take away Curran’s title from an Augusta bridge that had been devoted to him.

However any potential declare towards the Catholic Church had lengthy since expired as a result of statute of limitations. After final yr’s modification made a lawsuit attainable, Dupuis was motivated to come back ahead as a result of he felt the church had by no means “come clear” concerning the lengthy historical past of clergy intercourse abuse.

“They proceed to brush all the problems below the rug,” he stated. “They maintain minimizing what occurred to me and so many different folks.”

The Maine modification that made Dupuis’s lawsuit attainable adopted related, however usually extra restrictive laws, in different states.

In 2014, Massachusetts handed a legislation that retroactively prolonged statutes of limitations for lawsuits over youngster intercourse abuse. However accusers usually should be 52 years previous or youthful to sue alleged abusers. To sue establishments, they should have found inside the earlier seven years that the alleged abuse harmed them, comparable to by resulting in alcoholism or post-traumatic stress dysfunction.

“Massachusetts must abolish statutes of limitations regarding sexual abuse claims throughout the board,” stated Garabedian, the legal professional for lots of the victims within the priest intercourse abuse scandal uncovered by the Globe’s 2002 Highlight investigation.

The Catholic Church has challenged statute of limitations reforms elsewhere. In 2015, the Connecticut Supreme Court docket dominated towards the Hartford Diocese, discovering {that a} retroactive change to statutes of limitations was permissible below the state structure. The identical resolution famous that Maine legislation appeared to ban retroactive modifications to statutes of limitations.

Gramlich, the Maine legislator, stated she wasn’t stunned that the church would problem her modification.

“It triggered numerous angst with establishments,” she stated. “I feel the individuals who have come ahead within the final yr are simply the tip of the iceberg.”

Mike Damiano could be reached at mike.damiano@globe.com.