Boston Sexual Abuse Lawyer Blog

A Queens, NY judge has rejected Bob Oliva's motion to dismiss the $20 million lawsuit filed by a man who was sexually abused by the former Christ the King Regional High School basketball coach.

The decision by Queens Supreme Court Judge Roger N. Rosengarten means the case will go to trial later this year unless Oliva's attorney, Henry Weil, files an appeal or Oliva reaches a settlement with the plaintiff, Jimmy Carlino.

"The trial will continue to expose Bob Oliva for the sexual predator that he is," Carlino's Boston-based attorney, Mitchell Garabedian, told the New York Daily News.

The Daily News reported that Oliva admitted in a Boston courtroom last year that he had sexually abused Carlino during a trip to Massachusetts in 1976, when Carlino was 14. Oliva was sentenced to probation for five years and required to register as a sex offender.

Weil had argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed because it was barred by the statute of limitations and Oliva had not been charged or convicted of abusing Carlino in New York.

Rosengarten wrote in his decision that under New York law, the clock on the statute of limitation is reset after a defendant is convicted of a crime -- and that it doesn't matter where the crime occurred or where the defendant was charged.

The lawsuit, filed on April 1, 2011, three days before Oliva pleaded guilty to two sex-abuse charges, says the disgraced former coach abused Carlino more than 100 times between 1974 and 1978. Most of the abuse took place in New York, the suit says, but Oliva also molested Carlino during out-of-state trips.

Another man told the Boston grand jury that indicted Oliva that the legendary coach had sexually abused him also.

A Suffolk Superior Court judge will decide whether to dismiss a lawsuit against Children's Hospital Boston, after hearing arguments this week on the suit filed on behalf of 11 people who say they were abused by pediatrician Melvin Levine, when he worked in North Carolina.

Levine, who has been accused of sexually abusing dozens of children during medical treatments, had been an esteemed doctor at Children's and later became a professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina Medical School in Chapel Hill. He committed suicide last February. A class action suit had been filed against him at the time, but Levine had never faced criminal charges stemming from the allegations.

The Boston lawsuit contends that Children's Hospital could have prevented the abuses alleged in North Carolina if it had reported earlier complaints made about the doctor.

The Boston Globe reports that attorneys for Children's Hospital argued in Court that the hospital had no duty to report complaints to institutions that employed Levine after he left Boston.

"There is simply no duty under Massachusetts law between Children's Hospital and these North Carolina plaintiffs," said Gail Ryan, an attorney for the hospital.

The lawsuit, she continued, could set a bad precedent.

"We're talking about fundamental notions of the meaning of negligence," the Globe quoted Ryan as saying. "[The lawsuit] would open up this court to any out-of-state litigant who wanted to come back in here and file a suit against any former employer for potential acts of their former employees years down the road."

But Mark Itzkowitz, an attorney for the North Carolina plaintiffs, told the Globe that the hospital had received complaints about the doctor as early as 1967, and should have suspected that potential abuses could occur at other hospitals.

"The public is reliant on the medical community to police its own physicians," Itzkowitz said.

Judge Merita Hopkins did not specify when she will make a decision on whether the suit can go forward.

Accused child molester Ernest Lorch, the founder of the prestigious Riverside Church (NY) basketball program, is not competent to be extradited to Massachusetts to stand trial for sexual abuse, a Westchester judge ruled in White Plains, as reported by the Daily News.

State Supreme Court Judge Albert Lorenzo made the ruling after prosecutor Carrie Russell of Massachusetts' Northwestern District Attorney's office said at an extradition hearing that she would not contest three experts' claims that Lorch suffers from dementia.

But Lorch is not off the hook in Massachusetts just yet. Lorenzo said he could review the case in three months. Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan said his office will review the case to determine if it should continue its efforts to bring Lorch to Massachusetts to stand trial.

"We want to look at the case and make sure his condition is permanent," Sullivan told the Daily News. "It is disheartening for an individual that we wanted to bring to justice to slip through the justice system because of his condition. We will make a decision in the next month."

Lorch, 79, was indicted by a western Massachusetts grand jury in October 2010 on attempted rape and indecent assault and battery of a person over 14 years old.

The indictment said Lorch assaulted the alleged victim sometime between March 1977 and April 1978 during a trip to Amherst for a basketball tournament. The indecent assault and battery charge was later dropped because it was not on the books until after the attack allegedly occurred.

Mitchell Garabedian, the victim's Boston attorney, said his client is "disappointed" that Lorch may not be prosecuted because of his failing health.

"He wanted the truth to come to light," Garabedian told the Daily News. "My client should be proud for coming forward and reporting sex abuse. By doing so, he made the world a safer place."

Garabedian said he is trying to determine if the ruling will permit him to proceed with a civil suit against Lorch and Riverside Church.

A Massachusetts judge on Friday awarded a total of $3 million to two child sex abuse victims of a former Franciscan priest who served prison time for child molestation in a separate case.

Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders entered the judgment against John Dority, awarding one victim $2 million and the other $1 million. Both were abused in Boston between 1965 and 1971, starting when they were ages 10 and 13.
Their attorney, Carmen Durso, said Sanders said that no amount of money could compensate either victim for their suffering.
Dority, 70, was convicted of child molestation in Rhode Island in 2005 and released from prison in 2007.

In interview in March, Dority told The Associated Press that he never answered the lawsuit because he couldn't afford an attorney and because the allegations are true.
"What I did was completely wrong. I admit that," Dority said. "I'm very sorry for the trouble I caused, the harm I caused."
Durso said he doesn't think Dority has the money to pay the judgments, but such cases aren't about money for most victims.
"They want someone to place a value on their life and what they've lost," he said.

Federal Court judge Denise Casper has entered summary judgment for Defendant Cultural Care in a case brought by plaintiff, on behalf of herself and her son, alleging gross negligence, fraud, fraudulent and deceptive business practices in violation of Massachusetts and Illinois law and intentional infliction of emotional distress after an au pair provided by the defendants allegedly sexually abused her son.

Casper ruled that with respect to the allegation of inadequate screening, [plaintiff Jane] Doe presents no evidence that Defendants did not properly screen [au pair Julian] Reyes or that through [defendant] Cultural Care's screening process, there was any indication that Reyes had any propensity for or had ever engaged in any abusive behavior.

"Doe also alleges Cultural Care failed to conduct a criminal background search. The record shows that this allegation is not true; Cultural Care conducted a background check which revealed that Reyes had no criminal record. ...

"... The failure to provide Doe with the other host family's information or failing to inform Doe that Reyes had been discharged by two prior host families simply does not demonstrate the requisite indifference or 'the want of even scant care' ... required to establish gross negligence. ...The same is true as to the Defendants' alleged failure to inform Doe that Reyes was a smoker or drinker prior to hiring him.

... Nor could a jury conclude that it was reasonably foreseeable -- i.e., that Defendants knew or should have known -- that John Doe would be abused as a result of Defendants' conduct and that Defendants were therefore grossly negligent in placing Reyes in, and not removing him earlier, from Doe's residence. ...

"... The amended complaint alleges that Defendants violated ch. 93A by 'engaging in a pattern and practice of inadequate screening, concealing problems with au pairs and making knowing or willful misrepresentations concerning the circumstances surrounding the separation of au pairs from prior host families,' ... but as explained above, Doe has failed to show that Defendants' conduct including the alleged misrepresentations or omissions caused the harm allegedly suffered by John Doe. Summary judgment is therefore granted in Defendants' favor as to Count V."

The case is Doe v. Cultural Care, Inc., et al. (Lawyers Weekly No. 02-294-11) (21 pages) (Casper, J.) (USDC) (Civil Action No. 10-11426-DJC) (Oct. 7, 2011).

Thomas Scully, a Beverly Public Library employee who pled guilty to child pornography possession in 2009, is entitled to have his retirement allowance reinstated, a three-judge Appeals Court panel has ruled, overturning the judgment of lower courts on the grounds that his crimes were not directly related to his job, as reported by the State House News Service.

"While Scully's conduct was reprehensible, in view of the narrow interpretation that consistently has been given to [state pension law] we are constrained to conclude that the mandatory forfeiture of Scully's pension was not legally tenable," according to the unanimous ruling, penned by Judge Ariane Vuono.

Vuono argued that the judges were required to interpret state law narrowly based on prior rulings. "Moreover, despite this consistent interpretation, the Legislature has not modified the statute," she wrote.

The ruling reinstates the pension of Scully, the Beverly library's former director of community service. Scully, who began working at the library in 1986, resigned in 2005 after police raided his home and discovered seven images of child pornography on his computer.

The discovery came during an investigation into allegations that Scully had an inappropriate relationship with a library patron who was 15 years old at the time.

Prosecutors alleged that Scully met the boy at the library and invited him to his home, where he regularly allowed him to view pornography.

The State House News Services reports that prosecutors charged Scully with possession of child pornography, distributing obscene material to a minor and indecent assault and battery. However, the assault charge was dropped and Scully struck a plea deal in which he admitted only to possession of child pornography.

After he resigned from the library, Scully applied for a retirement allowance, which he was granted. But after his conviction in 2009, the Beverly Retirement Board voted 3-2 to revoke his pension on the grounds that his crimes involved his relationship with a minor who he met at the library. The decision was later affirmed by the District Court and the Superior Court.

But the Appeals Court, in its ruling, argued that the lower courts misapplied state pension law, which requires forfeiture of a retiree's pension after a conviction on a criminal offense "involving violation of the laws applicable to his office or position."

Continue reading "Beverly Employee Caught With Porn Gets Pension Reinstated" »

The state Appeals Court has overturned the conviction of a Lowell woman found guilty along with her husband in 1997 of drugging and raping their four sons because she may have been incompetent to stand trial.

The court in its decision last week said a Superior Court judge erred in 2002 when he denied Nancy Adkinson's motion for a new trial. The judge said even though Adkinson suffered from abuse at the hands of her husband, a competency hearing was not required.

The Appeals Court said in its decision that the Superior Court judge's definition of competency was "too narrow" and there was "substantial evidence" that Adkinson was incompetent.

Prosecutors told The Sun of Lowell that they are reviewing the ruling.

Adkinson was sentenced to 35 to 40 years in prison.

A grand jury did not find enough evidence to indict Kevin Treseler of Millis, the 21-year-old Stonehill College student who - according to what an 8 year old girl told police - had put his hands down her pants while he was working as a tutor in a classroom at her Brockton elementary school.

When the grand jury declined to indict Treseler, prosecutors moved immediately this week to dismiss all charges against him, as reported by the Milford Daily News.

"We will make sure this young victim has access to the services she needs," said Bridget Norton Middleton, a spokesman for Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz. "But without further information, the investigation is closed."

Given the medical evidence of injuries to the girl's body, it is clear the child was abused, but it's not clear by whom, said Jetta Bernier, executive director of the Massachusetts Citizens for Children, a children's advocacy organization.

"Children very rarely lie about sexual abuse," said Bernier. "On the other hand, you can imagine a scenario of a child who has, in fact, been raped, but not by this person."

Treseler's lawyer, Michael P. Doolin, told the media the district attorney's move not to prosecute his client was welcomed by Treseler and his family.

"He's a beautiful kid, he really is, and I'm happy for him and his family," said Doolin.

A former Holyoke, Massachusetts school teacher who ran off with a male student and pleaded guilty to statutory rape charges was given probation yesterday by a judge who said he does not see her as a sexual predator.

Lisa Lavoie, a 25-year-old former teacher at Maurice Donahue Elementary School in Holyoke, was charged in 2009 after she and a 15-year-old boy were reported missing and found a week later in a motel in Morgantown, W.Va. She pleaded guilty last month to three counts of statutory rape and one count of enticement of a child under the age of 16.

Prosecutors asked Judge Cornelius Moriarty to sentence Lavoie to three to five years in state prison.

But Moriarty, saying he does not think Lavoie will reoffend, spared her jail time and sentenced her instead to five years of probation.

"There are those who perhaps will say this sentence is too lenient,'' Moriarty said, as reported by the Associated Press. "This too shall pass,'' he told Lavoie.

Hampden District Attorney Mark Mastroianni did not immediately return calls from the AP seeking comment on the sentence.

Moriarty said Lavoie's conduct was "seriously exacerbated by the fact that she was a teacher.''

He said that in most cases involving adults having sexual relations with children it is an adult male and the motivation is more likely to be sexual gratification.

"But I find this is not the case,'' he said. "In fact it's quite the contrary.''

Moriarty said he thinks Lavoie's "interest and concern for [the boy's] emotional well-being was what originally began this episode,'' which he said "was originally well-intended.''

He said it appears Lavoie's kindness toward the boy was what led to his sexual interest in her.

As part of her probation, the judge ordered her not to have any contact with the boy or his immediate family.

Prosecutors asked Moriarty to also order Lavoie to not have any unsupervised contact with children under 16.

The judge rejected that request, saying, "I don't find this young lady to be a sexual predator.''

The judge ordered Lavoie to complete an alcohol rehabilitation program.

Last month, Lavoie's bail was revoked after she violated a pre-sentence probation condition of no alcohol.

Her lawyer said Lavoie accepts responsibility and does not excuse what she did.

The highest court in Massachusetts says homeless sex offenders should not be punished for being unable to keep their GPS monitoring devices charged.

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled Tuesday in the case of John Canadyan Jr., a homeless man who was sentenced to 18 months in jail after pleading guilty to two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14.

After his release, Canadyan was ordered to wear a GPS device. But a judge found that Canadyan had violated his probation by not doing enough to find a job that, in turn, would allow him to secure housing and have access to an electrical outlet for charging the device.

The SJC ruled that that the lower court's finding that Canadyan had violated the terms of his probation was "akin to punishing the defendant for being homeless" because he did not have access to a power outlet.