Beaumont Diocese Named in Sexual Abuse Case

Beaumont Enterprise
April 20, 2012

http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Beaumont-Diocese-named-in-sexual-abuse-case-3498011.php

A Dallas County man has filed a sexual abuse claim against the Catholic Diocese of Beaumont, alleging he was sexually abused by a priest in the late 1970s.

The plaintiff, who is identified only as John Doe 104 in the legal suit filed in a Jefferson County district court on April 12, claims the late Ronald Bollich routinely sexually assaulted him in 1976 and 1977.

Bollich was assigned to the Sacred Heart Parish in Nacogdoches, which was governed by the Beaumont Diocese, at the time of the allegations, according to the court filing.

Bollich died in 1996 at the age of 59, the filing shows.

Defendants named in the filing include the Beaumont Diocese and Bishop Curtis Guillory, "in his official capacity" as the leader of the Diocese.

The plaintiff, who is now an adult, said he was a teenager at the time of the abuse, according to court documents. He said he had taken a summer and weekend job working in the rectory of Sacred Heart in 1976.

"Bollich paid him for these jobs and also began to 'groom' Doe 104 by giving him a digital watch, taking him to lunch and providing him with cigarettes and alcohol," according to the filing.

The gifts then led to sexual requests, according to the filing.

The plaintiff is requesting financial damages to recoup losses associated with counseling costs and lost wages, according the filing. He requests a trial by jury in the case.