This story has been updated.
Four years ago, hundreds of victims came forward alleging that Catholic priests on Long Island had sexually abused them. Today, those victims finally reached a $320.5 million settlement with the Diocese of Rockville Centre.
“The majority of our clients are in their 60’s and 70’s – they have been waiting decades for justice, and we are extremely pleased to reach this settlement on their behalf,” said Adam Slater in a statement, founding and managing Partner of Slater Slater Schulman LLP, which represents about 100 of the 600 clients in the case. “Importantly, this is the largest Diocese settlement in the history of New York State.”
“We hope it will serve as a model for other pending cases around the country,” he added, “So that adult survivors living with the lifelong trauma of being sexually assaulted by predator-priests can receive the compensation they deserve and begin healing.”
Why Did The Diocese of Rockville Centre Finally Settle?
The diocese first filed for bankruptcy back in 2020, and that claim has been hotly contested for the past four years. Meanwhile, the first official jury court date for the sex abuse lawsuit — scheduled for Oct. 7 — loomed ever closer.
Today, with less than two weeks before that first jury trial, the Diocese of Rockville Centre agreed on a $320.5 million settlement with the victims. Joseph Amala, a partner and sexual abuse attorney with Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala PLLC, who represents more than a dozen survivors who filed claims in the DRVC bankruptcy, believes the DRVC finally settled to avoid those upcoming jury trials.
“The timing of this settlement speaks volumes,” Amala said. “Ironically, the Diocese filed for bankruptcy in order to avoid jury trials, but then spent the last four years asserting our clients’ claims had little or no value. We commend the survivors and Judge Glenn for staying the course, making the deal happen, and sending a strong message that even the most powerful entities can be held accountable.”
What Exactly Is The Settlement?
The Diocese of Rockville Centre will pay $320.5 million to the victims of alleged sexual abuse by priests in its parishes. That settlement amount is subject to increase, based on claims covered by the Arrowood insurance company, which is going through liquidation and did not participate in the settlement.
The bankruptcy includes all of DRVC’s parishes — the diocese previously made clear that they would never agree to a settlement that does not include this condition, which protects the parishes and their insurers from the threat of future lawsuits.
This is a first in any bankruptcy arising from claims against the Catholic Church, and will stop a number of jury trials against the DRVC and its parishes.
On April 12, the DRVC had filed its own motion to dismiss its bankruptcy, claiming $200 million was “its best and final offer” to its creditors. Their real final offer, proposed today, is over $120 million more than that.
“Rather than (accept April’s lowball offer), the survivors told the Diocese, its parishes, and their insurance companies to get ready to face New York juries for their wrongdoing,” said James Marsh, a partner and sexual abuse attorney with Marsh Law Firm PLLC, in a statement.
“I hope this settlement paves the way for a similar approach in the other Catholic bankruptcies, some of which have been pending for even longer than this one,” Marsh continued. “If anyone out there wants to argue these claims aren’t worth much, they should be forced to make that argument to a jury.”
Timeline Of The Diocese of Rockville Centre’s Contested Bankruptcy
Up until Sept. 26, the Diocese of Rockville Centre was at the center of one of the longest pending Catholic bankruptcies in the country.
The DRVC filed for bankruptcy immediately after more than 200 lawsuits were filed on behalf of more than 600 victims, all alleging they had been sexually abused by priests in the diocese.
Victims’ attorneys criticized the move as a delay tactic, saying that it could limit survivors’ ability to unearth names of accused priests and expose leaders who engaged in coverups. And, because the bankruptcy court would set a claims bar date, that would have been the deadline for the sexual abuse survivors to file a claim in bankruptcy court or risk losing their legal rights.
Then, in March 2023, The Official Committee Of Unsecured Creditors — a committee of survivors appointed by the bankruptcy court to represent the interests of all survivors — filed a motion to dismiss the the Diocese of Rockville Centre’s bankruptcy, claiming the DRVC and its parishes were unwilling to propose a reasonable amount to resolve it. Further, the DRVC made clear it would never agree to a settlement that did not include its parishes.
In October 2023, bankruptcy court rejected the Committee’s motion to dismiss DRVC’s claim, because it would result in hundreds of lawsuits against the Diocese and its parishes returning to state court. Further, there was nothing to stop the Diocese of Rockville Centre from simply filing for bankruptcy again afterwards.
Then, earlier this year, the DRVC announced a plan for emerging from bankruptcy. But in April, they announced that its proposed plan had been rejected by more than 85% of survivors, which it admitted was an “overwhelming” number of rejections. Later that month, they proposed a $200 million settlement.
The first jury trial was scheduled to begin on Oct. 7.
Finally, today, the Diocese of Rockville Centre proposed the $320.5 million global settlement with the hundreds of sex abuse survivors who allege they were abused as children at the DRVC’s parishes, churches, and schools.
Background On The Sexual Abuse Lawsuit
The lawsuits were made possible by the Child Victims Act. The legislation, passed in 2019, extended the timeline for victims to file lawsuits against their abusers and the institutions that enabled them.
Prior to that legislation, adults who had been victims of sexual abuse in their childhoods and had been too afraid to speak out at the time were then restricted by the prior statute of limitations, and were unable to take any legal action against their abusers.
The Child Victims Act extended the statute of limitations on such cases, and also opened a temporary “look back” window where people of any age could file lawsuits to seek justice for abuse they had experienced as children.
The Diocese of Rockville Centre attempted to overturn the Child Victims Act.
Soon after the legislation passed, more than 200 lawsuits were filed on behalf of more than 600 victims, alleging that numerous priests throughout the DRVC’s 132 parishes had sexually abused children. Those priests included Fathers Michael Hands, Kenneth Hasselbach, Charles Ribaudo, Alfred Soave, and Anthony Trapani.
One suit from a “John Doe” exemplifies the traumatizing and deeply harmful experiences alleged by the hundreds of other plaintiffs.
Father Soave was a priest at St. Hugh of Lincoln Roman Catholic Church in Huntington Station in or around 1974 when he, according to the suit, raped and sexually abused “John Doe” on at least two occassions. “John Doe” had been a 12-year-old child, who had been in the custody of the church since he was an infant.
Following these attacks, “John Doe” experienced and suffered personal physical and psychological injuries, severe and permanent emotional distress, difficulty sleeping, low self-confidence, isolation, loss of faith, alcohol and substance problems, problems with sexual intimacy, anger issues, depression, anxiety, and feelings of worthlessness, shamefulness, and embarrassment, among many other traumatic and lasting effects.
