A change in Maine law prompts a wave of new church abuse allegations

The elimination of the statute of limitations was a salve for men and women like Robert Dupuis, 73, who stated he was abused by a priest when he was 12 yrs old and experienced hardly ever been able to confront the church as an adult. In June, he filed accommodate versus the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland.

Dupuis is considerably from on your own.

His law firm, Michael Bigos, head of the intercourse abuse observe at Berman & Simmons in Lewiston, explained his agency is symbolizing “approximately 100″ consumers who are now equipped to provide statements from the Catholic Church and other defendants. Far more than half of people shoppers, Bigos mentioned, allege abuse by Catholic Church staff, which include priests.

Boston lawyer Mitchell Garabedian, the longtime advocate for clergy sex abuse victims, claimed he signifies about 20 clientele whose claims versus the Catholic Church in Maine are possible simply because of the amendment.

The Diocese of Portland is trying to head off the lawsuits by tough the modification by itself. In November, the diocese’s attorneys argued in court filings that the amendment was unconstitutional less than Maine law because it retroactively removed statutes of limitations that experienced currently expired. If the challenge succeeds, lawsuits built achievable by the modification would have to be dismissed.

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

The diocese did not respond to a number of requests for comment previous 7 days.

Dmitry Bam, vice dean and provost at the University of Maine University of Legislation, said that existing Maine precedents appeared to favor the church’s situation, but that the concern has not been definitively settled.

The lawful dispute is expected to arrive at the Maine Supreme Court, which could come to a decision the scenario this 12 months. Till then, dozens of promises will keep on being in limbo.

The energy to move the modification was established in motion soon after state Consultant Lori Gramlich read a radio segment about a identical go in New York. “That resonated with me mainly because I am a survivor of kid sex abuse,” she stated.

Like several survivors, she had reached center age without the need of coming forward about the abuse inflicted on her by her late stepfather, she said. “We know that the ordinary age for survivors to appear forward is 52,” she claimed, citing a 2014 examine by German scientists.

In 2000, the Maine Legislature passed a law that indefinitely prolonged the statute of restrictions for most civil statements about baby intercourse abuse alleged to have transpired considering that 1987. But that legislation couldn’t aid folks with older promises, whose statutes of limits had currently expired.

Previous 12 months Gramlich released a monthly bill that would retroactively eradicate the statute of limits for all circumstances of boy or girl sexual intercourse abuse. Now even persons in their 80s who had been abused in the 1950s could bring promises.

Given that September 2021, when the regulation went into influence, older survivors have occur forward with promises in opposition to a wide array of defendants, together with summer time camps, a condition prosecutor, and the Boy Scouts of The usa. Quite a few have explained in information conferences and interviews that what they want, additional than a hard cash settlement, is belated accountability for the individuals and institutions they say harmed them. (The modification consists of some exceptions for government businesses.)

“My commitment for putting [this amendment] in was not about lawsuits,” Gramlich mentioned. “It was about justice.”

Dupuis was 12 many years previous when he commenced carrying out odd work opportunities for the Rev. John J. Curran at St. Joseph Church in Aged City. It was normal for Dupuis to find get the job done there, he stated, because for his French-talking household dwelling in a compact central Maine neighborhood, “the church was every thing.”

In the slide of 1961, Curran periodically instructed Dupuis to sign up for him in a significant closet where Curran experienced put a chair, in accordance to the lawsuit submitted by Dupuis. (Curran known as the closet his office environment, the go well with stated.) There, Curran allegedly pulled Dupuis’s buttocks versus his crotch and touched Dupuis’s genitals in excess of clothing. After the abuse, the priest would shell out Dupuis his wages, the lawsuit mentioned.

Sooner or later, Curran dismissed Dupuis from the church occupation and explained to Dupuis’s friends he was “unreliable,” the lawsuit claimed. At least two other men have explained Curran, who died in 1976, sexually abused them when they were being young children, in accordance to information studies and investigative records unveiled by the Maine attorney standard.

The abuse, which Dupuis would keep mystery for just about 50 many years, wreaked havoc on his everyday living, he mentioned in an interview. It may perhaps have contributed to his alcoholism and it left him with crippling have faith in problems, he said.

“I in no way really had any friendships,” Dupuis said. “Even my spouse and I by no means turned buddies right until I went to restoration.”

In 2006, when he was 57, he commenced a restoration from alcoholism and explained to family customers about the alleged abuse, he explained. The future year, Dupuis spoke out publicly as aspect of a effective force to remove Curran’s identify from an Augusta bridge that had been devoted to him.

But any prospective declare towards the Catholic Church experienced very long because expired because of to the statute of constraints. Immediately after very last year’s amendment produced a lawsuit feasible, Dupuis was motivated to arrive forward due to the fact he felt the church experienced by no means “come clean” about the lengthy history of clergy sex abuse.

“They continue to sweep all the issues underneath the rug,” he explained. “They maintain reducing what took place to me and so many other people today.”

The Maine modification that built Dupuis’s lawsuit achievable adopted related, but usually far more restrictive legislation, in other states.

In 2014, Massachusetts passed a regulation that retroactively prolonged statutes of limitations for lawsuits around kid intercourse abuse. But accusers typically have to be 52 yrs aged or youthful to sue alleged abusers. To sue establishments, they must have found out within the previous seven decades that the alleged abuse harmed them, these types of as by leading to alcoholism or publish-traumatic strain disorder.

“Massachusetts requires to abolish statutes of limitations regarding sexual abuse promises across the board,” claimed Garabedian, the attorney for numerous of the victims in the priest sex abuse scandal exposed by the Globe’s 2002 Spotlight investigation.

The Catholic Church has challenged statute of constraints reforms somewhere else. In 2015, the Connecticut Supreme Courtroom dominated from the Hartford Diocese, acquiring that a retroactive improve to statutes of restrictions was permissible below the condition constitution. The very same selection pointed out that Maine regulation appeared to prohibit retroactive adjustments to statutes of constraints.

Gramlich, the Maine legislator, said she was not surprised that the church would challenge her amendment.

“It brought on a whole lot of angst with institutions,” she stated. “I consider the individuals who have come forward in the past year are just the tip of the iceberg.”

Mike Damiano can be attained at [email protected].