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  Lawsuit against Diocese Involving Ex-Dover Priest Dismissed

By Aaron Sanborn
Foster's Daily Democrat
August 22, 2008

http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080822/GJNEWS_01/1069/-1/FOSNEWS

A lawsuit against the Diocese of Manchester, claiming a former Dover priest raped and infected a man with HIV, has been dismissed.

Officials at Hillsborough County Superior Court confirmed the case's dismissal on Thursday afternoon but could give no further information because the dismissal is under seal.

The diocese's attorney, Brian Quirk, declined to comment about any aspect of the case.

The suit was filed in April by former Seacoast resident Daniel Brown of Key West, Fla. Brown sued for $130 million and alleged the diocese and Bishop John McCormack were negligent for allowing the priest to be head priest at St. Mary Parish in Dover.

Brown said the priest, Father Wilfred Houle, was an open homosexual, drug user and infected with HIV. Brown claimed the negligence of the diocese led to him being raped by the priest in a Portsmouth apartment.

Shortly after, the diocese filed a motion to dismiss, which was sealed. Foster's obtained the motion from Brown. In the motion, Quirk stated Brown is banned from pursuing the lawsuit because he had already entered into a settlement with the diocese in September 2003 and references an agreement Brown entered into where Brown "terminated with prejudice his claims regarding Father Houle."

In the $490,000 settlement agreement that Brown signed on Sept. 10, 2003, he agreed to "forever discharge the Diocese of Manchester from any further liability with respect to his claims concerning Father Houle."

Calls placed to Brown on Thursday afternoon went unreturned.

In a previous interview, Brown claimed he was "coerced" into taking his previous settlement, claiming diocese officials lied about the cause of Houle's death during settlement mediations. Brown later hired a private investigation firm to obtain Houle's death certificate, which verified Houle died in 1987 of HIV.

The alleged rape occurred in 1977 at Houle's Cabot Street apartment in Portsmouth, according to Brown.

Houle was only at the Dover church a short time during the 1970s before moving on to a parish in Derry.

Contact: asanborn@fosters.com

 
 

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