Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Ex-altar boy sues Sarasota priest, claims sex abuse

The Venice diocese says there is no credible evidence that the claims by the St. Petersburg man occurred 20 years ago.

By CHRIS TISCH
Published November 9, 2005

SARASOTA - A St. Petersburg man is suing a Catholic priest who he says sexually abused him when he was an altar boy 20 years ago.

The man filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Sarasota County naming the Rev. George E. Brennan as his abuser. The suit also alleges a coverup of the abuse and names Bishop John J. Nevins, who oversees the 10-county Venice diocese, as a defendant.

The St. Petersburg man is not identified in the suit. He is a local businessman in his early 30s, said his attorney, Joseph H. Saunders.

The man claims Brennan sexually abused him around 1984 when he was 11 years old. The suit says Brennan sodomized the boy about four times at Incarnation Catholic Church in Sarasota while he was a seminarian.

But Gail McGrath, a diocese spokeswoman, said Brennan never was a seminarian at the church. From 1983 to 1987, he was in seminary in Boynton Beach and spent his summers at a parish in Bradenton. He didn't come to Incarnation until he was ordained in 1987, she said.

"It's a tragedy when anyone is sexually abused, but it's also a tragedy when someone is mistakenly accused," McGrath said. "George Brennan may have his reputation and name irreparably damaged."

Brennan is in charge of St. Patrick parish in Sarasota, which includes a day care center. McGrath said there are no plans to move him.

"We have no credible information that he did anything wrong," McGrath said. "If we did . . . he certainly would be removed. But there is such a discrepancy in the allegation. And Father Brennan denies it."

Saunders said his client suffered traumatic amnesia, but recovered memories of the abuse last year when he heard news accounts of other sexual abuse cases against priests.

Saunders said his client, who is married with no children, is currently in treatment. Though he has not made a complaint to law enforcement, the man intends to do that in the future, Saunders said.

There is no statute of limitations for the type of abuse the man alleges.

The suit states that the Very Rev. Gerard Finegan, the pastor of the church, learned of the abuse soon after it occurred. The suit claims Finegan told the boy not to tell anyone or he would be excommunicated.

Finegan, who remains at the church today, denies that conversation ever took place, McGrath said.

In 1991, Brennan was arrested for exposing himself to an undercover deputy in Hillsborough County.

The arrest occurred in an area where deputies received complaints of men soliciting other men for sex. Brennan said the case was a misunderstanding. He pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor lewd and lascivious behavior charge and was fined $85. The diocese took no action against him.

McGrath said the diocese normally refrains from speaking publicly about abuse lawsuits, instead letting the facts come out in court. She made an exception for this lawsuit.

"This particular one just seems to be so blatantly incorrect that it moves us to perhaps speak out more than we normally would," she said, "especially when someone may be falsely accused or mistakenly identified."

[Last modified November 9, 2005, 00:39:17]