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  Look Back: Father Lavigne Scandal

By Jennifer Colby
WWLP
May 20, 2010

http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/local_guide/look-back-father-lavigne-scandal

[with video]

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. (WWLP) - Former priest Richard Lavigne, now a registered sex offender, came under fire again last week when another alleged victim came forward.

Pete Caffrey filed a civil lawsuit at the Franklin Count court house on Wednesday, claiming Lavigne raped and molested him in the 1970s. The complaint named former Bishops Joseph Maguire and Thomas Dupre for failure to supervise Lavigne. Caffrey spoke exclusively to 22News Reporter Jaclyn Cashman and you can watch that interview by clicking here .

In 1992, Lavigne pleaded guilty to molesting two 12 year-old boys. He avoided jail time, but was sentenced to 10 years probation and forced to register as a sex offender. The Vatican also defrocked him after his conviction.

Lavigne was also the prime suspect in the murder 13 year-old altar boy Danny Croteau, whose bloody body was found on the banks of the Chicopee River in 1974. The DNA tests came back inconclusive and Lavigne was never charged with his murder,

Lavigne has also been named in dozens of other civil lawsuit claims of sex abuse – which has resulted in various settlements with the Springfield Diocese.

 
 

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