Brooklyn Diocese to pay $27.5M to settle four cases of sex abuse
Four men who were repeatedly sexually abused as children by a religion teacher at a Catholic church in Brooklyn received a $27.5 million settlement from the Diocese of Brooklyn on Tuesday, in one of the largest settlements ever awarded to individual victims of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.
The settlement comes two weeks after the New York State attorney general announced a statewide civil investigation into sex abuse within the Catholic Church and its cover-up by church leaders. It also comes in the wake of an extraordinary grand jury report in Pennsylvania detailing the abuse of more than 1,000 children by hundreds of priests over decades, and as Pope Francis faces intense pressure globally to take action against bishops and cardinals for their role in the abuse crisis.
“This is an extremely large settlement, and the size of the settlement has to be an indication of the severity of the abuse, and also of the pressure that the Catholic Church is under,” said Terry McKiernan, co-director and
president of BishopAccountability.org, which tracks clergy sexual abuse cases.
The four boys who will receive the settlement were repeatedly abused by Angelo Serrano, 67, a lay teacher of religion and the director of religious education at St. Lucy’s-St. Patrick’s Church, in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.
They were repeatedly raped between 2003 and 2009 when they were between the ages of 8 and 12. The abuse occurred inside the church, in Serrano’s apartment located in an old schoolhouse behind the church and at an afterschool program, lawyers for the victims said.
Serrano was a daily presence at the church from 1997 until his arrest in 2009. He helped with catechism classes and volunteered at a summer camp. He served as director of religious education. Speakers from the church pulpit often referred families to Serrano for help arranging a baptism or confirmation.
Serrano, who received a stipend from the church and had a desk on church grounds, was arrested in September 2009 for sexually abusing several boys after one of the victims reported the abuse to his mother, and she called the police. In 2011, he pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual conduct charges and is serving a 15-year sentence in Fishkill Correctional Facility.
Reforms mandated within the Catholic Church in 2002 were supposed to ensure a safe environment for minors, but in this case, they did not work, a Brooklyn court found. In a deposition, one priest testified, for example, that he saw Serrano kiss an 8- or 9-year-old boy on the mouth and inappropriately embrace the boy, but the priest never reported what he saw.
The Rev. Frank Shannon and the Rev. Stephen Lynch, pastors at the church during the years of the abuse, were named as co-defendants in the case.
“The record is clear that Lynch and Shannon, had knowledge for years that Serrano often had several boys, including the plaintiff, sleep over at his apartment,” Justice Loren Baily-Schiffman of Kings County Supreme Court wrote in an order dismissing the church’s motion for summary judgment of the case. “The record in this case at bar is replete with evidence of Serrano’s inappropriate behavior with sexual implications that continued for years even after he was told to stop.”
A church secretary, Beatrice Ponnelle, shared an office with Serrano. She testified that although the church had a rule that children were not allowed to be left alone in the office with a staff member, boys as young as 7 or 8 would come into the office to do their homework, sometimes sitting on Serrano’s lap. Yet absolutely no records were kept regarding Serrano and his employment history at the church, Justice BailySchiffman wrote.
The Diocese of Brooklyn and an affiliated afterschool program will pay the total settlement of $27.5 million, with each victim receiving $6,875,000, the lawyers said. While the Brooklyn Diocese did not immediately return requests for comment, a lawyer for the victims shared an email with the diocese’s attorney confirming the settlement amount. The note indicated that the diocese would confer with its insurers regarding how the settlement would be paid.
The victims, who are now between the ages of 19 and 21, have requested that their identities be withheld.
“These were boys who were abused in second grade through sixth grade, for years for some of them,” said another lawyer for the victims, Ben Rubinowitz. “The egregious nature of the conduct is the reason that the church paid what they did. … Some of these boys were in second grade when the abuse started. The abuse continued for months and years. This should never have happened.”
The diocese, which includes Queens, is in the process of settling hundreds of older clergy sex abuse cases — those that fall outside the state’s statute of limitations — for much smaller amounts, generally less than $500,000.
Since June 2017, 474 victims in Brooklyn have applied for settlements through the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program; six dioceses in the state are running similar programs.