On Wednesday, July 1, the first wave of what may be a tsunami of clergy sex abuse lawsuits against the Catholic Church will hit Rhode Island Superior Court.
And July 1 is just the first day in a two-year "revival window" the General Assembly created for long ago victims to file civil claims against their abusers and the institutions that failed to protect them, which until recently were barred by statutes of limitations and other legal restrictions.
Before the day is out, the filings may come in from law firms in a number of states, and the targets may extend well beyond the Diocese of Providence's realm to public and private schools, camps, athletic coaches, hospitals doctor's offices and beyond, if the ubiquitous client-seeking on social media are any indication.
Close to home, law firm Decof, Mega & Quinn was heading to court Wednesday with an initial batch of around 30 of the over 100 cases the Providence-based law firm plans to file, according to partner Mark Decof.
Decof said alleged victims had come to them years earlier asking if they had the right to sue. Because of the statute of limitations, he explained, they weren't able to sue then, but he knew a law may be enacted that would open the door for a lawsuit later.
"They retained us in the hope of someday being able to file," he said.
In addition to the "Bishop" – a phrase that encompasses many decades of church higher-ups within the nonprofit corporation known as the Diocese of Providence – the defendants include at least four living priests: Francis Santilli, James Silva, Kevin Fisette and John Petroselli. They were each named in the scathing report Attorney General Peter Neronha issued in March on the lengths the Catholic Church went to hide decades of abuse of at least 300 Rhode Island children.
The defendants also include the St. Aloysius Home in Greenville, a diocesan-run residential facility and orphanage for abused and neglected boys that was closed in January 1994 following a flood of sexual and physical abuse allegations.
In 2002, the state Supreme Court determined that a man claiming abuse at the former orphanage had missed the statute of limitations. The decision had an impact on more than three dozen other lawsuits alleging the diocese had covered up child sexual abuse by priests going back to the 1960s that may have life again.
Lawsuits expected from many law firms
But other local law firms are also headed to court.
"We know from the attorney general's report ... as well as [our clients] that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of victims of institutional sex abuse here in Rhode Island, that have been living with the pain of being abused as children by those charged with protecting them,” Jonathan D. Orent of law firm Motley Rice said in a recent interview.
Orent said that some victims reached out as many as five years ago, but had no recourse in seeking justice until the passage of the new law.
“For years, we've been telling people, unfortunately, Rhode Island isn't a place where you can find justice because of the way that the law was written," Orent said. "What we're getting from clients is they're coming in our door as a sense of relief that someone's finally listening to them, that the law is finally giving them their day, their rights to be able to pursue something in court and seek redress."
He said the Motley Rice team has received trauma-informed training to work with clients, many of whom are unearthing painful recollections of abuse they suffered in their youth after decades of denial.
Motley Rice is leaning on its experience representing victims of alleged sex abuse nationwide. The firm has handled cases against the Mormon Church, the Virgin Islands case against Jeffrey Epstein, sex abuse work against the Catholic Church in New Jersey, New York, and elsewhere, as well as against the Boy Scouts of America.
Other targets
The current day defendants in the cases filed by Decof, Mega & Quinn alone, include:
Bishop Hendricken High School; the Church of the Holy Ghost in North Tiverton; St. Mary's Church in Providence; the Church of St. Vincent de Paul of Anthony, Rhode Island; St. Lawrence Church of Centerdale; St. Margaret's Church Corporation in East Providence; St. Agatha's Church Corporation in Woonsocket; St. Matthew's Church of Central Falls; St. Charles Borromeo's Church in Woonsocket; Saint John Paul II Parish in Pawtucket; St. Joseph's Church in Natick; St. Mary's Church in Bristol; St. Barnabas Church Corporation in Portsmouth; St. Catherine's Roman Catholic Church of Warwick; Saint Anthony's Church Corporation in North Providence; Saint Anthony's Church in North Providence; and St. Ann Catholic Church of Providence.
What the AG's report said of these living priests
Francis Santilli was added to the diocese's list in 2022, with allegations against him brought in 2012, 2014 and 2021. He was not removed from the ministry, and added to the list, until the Attorney General's Office contacted the diocese in 2022 to ask about his status as a priest at the St. Philip School and Church in Smithfield. Criminal prosecutions have been barred by statutes of limitations and a lawsuit was also barred by a separate statute of limitations.
A grand jury indicted James Silva on 11 counts in 2021, alleging he sexually assaulted a boy younger than 14 between 1989 and 1990 while an administrator in the Office of Ministerial Formation within the Diocese of Providence. His case is ongoing.
A grand jury indicted John Petrocelli on three counts of first-degree child molestation and nine counts of second-degree child molestation in 2020. The indictment alleges Petrocelli abused three boys, all younger than 14 at the time. His case is scheduled for trial in October.
Kevin Fisette is charged with first-degree sexual assault for an incident that allegedly took place in 1981 involving a 13-year-old boy. His case is scheduled for trial in November.
Fisette was pastor at the St. Leo the Great Church in Pawtucket when a "credible allegation" was reported to state police in 2009, according to Providence Journal archives. He was removed from the ministry and in 2019 was placed on the list of credibly accused priests.
Prosecutors reported at Fisette’s arraignment years later that he had abused a 13-year-old. They said the case had been strengthened by testimony from then Bishop Thomas Tobin and Monsignor John Darcy about "damning" admissions Fisette made to them.
Other new evidence included emails between Fisette and the teen that constitute an admission of guilt, as well as statements he made to the state police that implicated him, according to prosecutors.
What does the new law do?
The new law goes where Rhode Island lawmakers were not yet ready to go in 2019 when they extended the deadline for victims of childhood sexual abuse to file lawsuits against those who abused them, even if the abuse took place outside of the statute of limitations.
The 2019 law extended the deadline from seven years to 35 years after the victim's 18th birthday, to age 53. But it allowed a retroactive extension of that deadline only if they were suing a “perpetrator” – not a “non-perpetrator.”
In the wake of Neronha's report, the Rhode Island General Assembly finally passed – and the governor signed – a new law that stretched the time limits and, for the first time, allowed civil suits against the diocese and any other institution that by neglect or willful action "caused or contributed to the childhood sexual abuse by another person."
The new law, sponsored by Rep. Carol McEntee, removes the statute of limitations entirely for a two-year period extending from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2028. It also allows lawsuits – that the Rhode Island Supreme Court previously refused to consider – against "non-perpetrators," meaning most simply: those who could have stopped the abuse, but didn't.
McEntee's efforts, which rose out of her older sister Ann Hagan Webb's abuse by their family’s parish priest, starting when she was in kindergarten, have now opened doors for many more people to file claims.
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