Stamford Times
April 25, 2007
http://www.thestamfordtimes.com/stamford_templates/stamford_story/288737965395528.php
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Mineola, N.Y. [AP] — A former youth minister at a church testified that his parish pastor gave him a directive that included refraining from inappropriate touching of teenagers in his care. A handshake was to be the limit.
But Stamford resident Matthew Maiello, who raped and sodomized teenagers as the youth minister at St. Raphael's Roman Catholic Church in East Meadow, agreed when an attorney suggested: "You never for one second intended to follow that?"
Maiello also testified Tuesday that the parish pastor never asked about his employment history or educational background before he was hired for the $20,000-a-year position.
"It wasn't discussed," Maiello said to the attorney for two people who are suing him, the parish, its pastor and the Diocese of Rockville Centre.
The two people are seeking $150 million in damages, claiming church leaders failed to uncover or prevent the youth minister's sexual attacks on teenagers in his care.
The lawsuit is one of the rare cases to go before a jury in the aftermath of the church sex abuse scandal that erupted five years ago. Because many abuses became known after criminal statutes of limitations had expired, civil claims often were settled out of court.
Maiello pleaded guilty to rape and sodomy of the two victims in 2003 and served more than two years in prison. Despite being a defendant in the lawsuit, Maiello is not contesting the charges against him, and his lawyer has said he will abide by whatever verdict the jury in the civil case reaches.
The plaintiffs, a woman and a man, are not being identified by The Associated Press because they are victims of sexual abuse.
Maiello was consistently vague on details but generally admitted that he seduced the teenagers over the course of several years beginning in the late 1990s.
On Monday, a female victim of Maiello's advances testified in excruciating detail about how he seduced her and eventually had sexual relations with her in a variety of locations on church property — including church pews and the elementary school principal's office — and elsewhere between 1998 and 2002.
"He would always tell me it was God's plan for us to be together," the woman said.
While Maiello did not deny having sexual relations, he repeatedly denied telling the woman that their trysts had anything to do with God.
"The answer is still no. I never said that," Maiello insisted after attorney Ben Rubinowitz peppered him with questions about what he told the woman.
Attorney Brian Davey, who represents the pastor, the Rev. Thomas Haggerty, the parish and the diocese, said all the blame for the sex attacks rests on Maiello, not on the church leadership.
Maiello said he could not recall the number of times he had sex with the teenagers in the office he was provided in the basement of the church convent. He said Haggerty had visited the office a number of times but never when the teenagers were there.
He said Haggerty met with him in November 1999, about six months after he was hired, and gave him the directive that included refraining from inappropriate touching of teenagers in his care.
Earlier Tuesday, Davey cross-examined the female victim, who admitted that Maiello had become a close friend of her family after her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and he served as a family adviser. He attended several family parties and accompanied the girl and her family on vacations to Florida and Lake George, N.Y.
She said neither her parents nor other relatives had suspected Maiello was sexually abusing her and she remained quiet because she said she felt threatened by him.
She eventually reported Maiello to police in March 2003.
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