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	Former Broward Priest Faces Two Lawsuits Om Molestation Charges By Andrew Ba Tran Sun-Sentinel June 26, 2008 http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-626priest,0,7055145.story MIAMI - Two men filed suit Wednesday against a former Broward County priest awaiting trial on sexual molestation charges, accusing him of paying them for sex with cash and toys when they were children. The Archdiocese of Miami knew the Rev. Neil Doherty was sexually abusing the boys in the 1980s but covered it up, according to the lawsuits filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. Doherty, 65, a former pastor at St. Vincent's Catholic Church in Margate, is awaiting trial in Broward on multiple counts of sexual battery, lewd and lascivious acts and molestation in a separate case. He pleaded not guilty and was freed on $70,000 bond. The two men, one in his late 20s and the other in his mid-30s, are cousins and relatives of other sexual abuse victims in previous lawsuits against the archdiocese, said attorney Jeffrey Herman, a Miami attorney representing the men. These are the 13th and 14th lawsuits filed by Herman naming Doherty. Most have been settled out of court, he said. Doherty used his position as a priest to sexually exploit the boys in the rectory at St. Mary's Cathedral, a private home and in his car, said Herman. According to Herman, the archdiocese hired investigators in 1987 to take statements from Doherty's victims and then covered up the findings. The archdiocese has not seen the new lawsuits, said spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta. Doherty retired in 2002 and is not allowed to wear clerical garb, she said. Once the archdiocese receives sex abuse lawsuits, the accusations are reported to the State Attorney's Office, Agosta said. Andrew Ba Tran can be reached at atran@fsun-fsentinel.fcom or 954-356-4543.
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