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  Archdiocese Records Filed in Lawsuit against Ryan

Foster's Daily Democrat [Laconia NH]
April 15, 2003

BOSTON - In an interview with an archdiocese investigator, Monsignor Frederick J. Ryan acknowledged knowing a man who accused him of sexual assault, but refused to address the allegations.

A memo detailing the April 5, 2002 interview was among documents made public on Monday after they were field at Suffolk Superior Court. They are part of lawsuits by two men who allege that Ryan sexually assaulted them while he was a sports team chaplain at an all-boys Catholic high school.

Ryan resigned last year as vice chancellor of the Archdiocese of Boston. He is one of the highest-ranking church officials to be accused of child molestation since the clergy sex abuse scandal broke last year.

In the interview, Ryan said he knew Gary Garland, one of the two men alleging the abuse, from his days as a chaplain at Catholic Memorial High School. He said he officiated Garland's wedding.

But when an archdiocese investigator, the Rev. David White, asked Ryan about the allegations, Ryan declined to answer any questions on the advice of his attorney.

"If someone was accusing me of anything and I was innocent, I would come forth and say 'this allegation is not true,'" said David Carney, who is also suing Ryan. "He has yet to come out and deny anything."

Ryan's attorney, Timothy O'Neill, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Garland claims Ryan gave him wine at a Boston restaurant, took nude photographs of him in the chancery, and performed oral sex on him.

Carney says Ryan sexually abused him twice at the archdiocese chancery 20 years ago. Carney also claims that Ryan drove he and a friend to a Cranston, R.I., motel where Ryan plied the boys with liquor and sexually molested them.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who is representing Carney and Garland, said there have been no talks with church attorneys about settling their cases.

 
 

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