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	Northbrook Priest Faces Sex Lawsuit By Michael Hirsley Chicago Tribune April 3, 1992 The pastor of a Roman Catholic parish in Northbrook was charged Thursday in a civil lawsuit with sexual abuse of a 1st-grade boy six years ago. It is the second such suit brought against Rev. Robert Lutz, pastor of St. Norbert parish, 1809 Walters Ave., in the past three years. He remains in his post pending disposition of the Cook County Circuit Court suits. Sister Joy Clough, director of public information for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, said Lutz was removed briefly while the church and law enforcement authorities investigated both cases, but was reinstated after those inquiries determined the allegations were unsubstantiated. A third unresolved suit against him, filed in U.S. District Court in 1984, alleges Lutz sexually harassed a female school principal in a Chicago parish where Lutz was previously pastor. The complaint filed Thursday by St. Paul, Minn., attorney Jeffrey Anderson, who is handling 140 clergy sex abuse cases, 100 involving Catholic priests, adds to the archdiocese's throes with this sensitive issue. Seven other priests have been removed from parishes in the archdiocese since last summer because of allegations of sexual misconduct with minors. But only one faces criminal prosecution, a Berwyn priest indicted on charges of molesting a 14-year-old girl. In the suit filed Thursday, plaintiffs identified only as "Father A," "Mother A" and "Minor A" alleged that Lutz "engaged in indecent sexual acts upon the person of the minor plaintiff on at least three separate occasions" in the spring of 1986, then threatened to kill him if he told his parents. Seeking "in excess of $30,000 for compensatory damages" on each of eight counts, the suit also charges Cardinal Joseph Bernardin with negligence and "vicarious liability" in his position as head of the archdiocese and Lutz's supervisor. "They know the plaintiffs and the charges because my clients went to the archdiocese first, trying to get this priest removed," said attorney Anderson. "We're hoping this action will cause them to re-examine how they deal with these issues and these priests." The archdiocese released a statement, responding that all the allegations against Lutz had been investigated by the Cook County state's attorney and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services "and were found to be unsubstantiated." At St. Norbert parish, a secretary said Lutz "is not taking calls." But his attorney, Mary Dempsey, said investigations by the law enforcement agencies and the special commission Bernardin appointed to examine sex abuse cases concluded that "there is not one shred of evidence to support these allegations." "The only reason these charges have been brought is to intimidate the archdiocese into paying money damages, and to intimidate an innocent priest," Dempsey said. In an interview, the boy's mother said the suit was brought after futile attempts to get the archdiocese and the law enforcement agencies to investigate the family's allegations thoroughly or pursue leads they provided about others who had complained privately about the pastor. "They ignore you, then call you a troublemaker and other names, so finally we took the case to Jeffrey Anderson," the mother said. "We feel like we're out in the desert waving a flag that no one will see." She said the family's frustration has built since last year, when they were subpoenaed by the archdiocese as possible witnesses in the first case, filed in 1989. That suit charges Lutz with sexual abuse of a 2nd grader at the St. Norbert school during the 1987-88 school year. It has not gone to trial. Archdiocesan attorneys "knew we were acquaintances of the first family, and heard that we had made and recanted allegations against Father Lutz," she said. "But we told them our son still stood by his allegations and we felt there was still more." From that point on, she said, "we were enmeshed in something beyond our control," and their son gradually told details he had long repressed. The family has long since moved to another Catholic parish and school. The mother said the archdiocese told her that Lutz was under a mandate not to be alone with minors. Dempsey said that was agreed upon only during the investigations, "but Father Lutz said it is his practice anyway not to be in the presence of minors alone." The mother said that after the family told their story to psychologists, police and the archdiocese, including Bernardin and his special commission, "My son asks me, 'Mom, why did I go through all this and he (Lutz) is still over there?' "We can't sit back and tell him, 'We didn't do everything we could.' "
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