New molestation suit accuses Jesuit of using parent, alumni donations to pay abuse settlements

By Ramon Antonio Vargas
Times Picayune
November 13, 2019

https://bit.ly/32LkcKc

Jesuit high school on Banks and Carrollton in New Orleans, La., Friday, Feb. 8, 2019. Photo by SOPHIA GERMER

A former Jesuit High School student who says he was raped by a predator janitor on the school’s campus in the 1970s alleges in a new lawsuit that Jesuit officials have used millions of dollars in parent and alumni money to cover abuse-related settlements.

The 19-page suit is the latest in a series of complaints attributing acts of sexual abuse to Peter Modica, a former minor league baseball player who got a job on Jesuit’s groundskeeping staff despite having previously pleaded guilty to molesting two teenagers.

The suit is the first in which a former Jesuit student claims he was molested by Modica. Earlier allegations have come from former residents of the neighborhood surrounding Jesuit who said they were victims of Modica but didn't attend the school. The filing is also the first to claim to know how the 172-year-old Catholic prep school has paid out settlements involving abuse allegations lodged against Modica as well as clergy and other religious personnel.

In a statement Wednesday, Jesuit officials said, “We received the (former student's) claim when it was first brought forward out of pastoral concern and in keeping with school policy. But, as with any claim, we have the responsibility to thoroughly assess the efficacy and legitimacy of the claim.”

The school declined to comment further, citing a policy against discussing pending litigation. 

According to the suit, the unidentified plaintiff was admitted to Jesuit at age 13 in 1978 with the help of Modica, whose athletic accomplishments earned the admiration of the boy and his father.

Modica allegedly helped the the boy's father prepare the teen’s application to the school and even introduced the dad to the principal at the time, the late Rev. Harry Tompson.

On a Saturday during his first semester, the boy, a long jumper on the track team, recalled going to Jesuit to work on a jumping pit the team used. Modica approached the boy, invited him into his office for lunch and then performed oral sex on him, according to the suit, prepared by attorneys John Denenea and Soren Gisleson.

Modica — who had by then served probation after pleading guilty to similar acts on boys at a Metairie playground in 1963 — allegedly told the boy to keep quiet. Otherwise, Modica said, he’d face expulsion from Jesuit and a ban at all other area Catholic schools.

The boy returned the next day to finish his work on the long jump pit and again ended up in Modica’s office, the suit says. This time, the suit says, Modica raped the boy.

The plaintiff — described as “a celebrated Jesuit alumnus who represented the school spectacularly in sporting events” — repressed memories of the assault for decades to cope with the trauma, the lawsuit says.

It says he recovered his recollection of the abuse when he saw old photos of Jesuit athletes last fall. He messaged a friend who suggested he contact the school or the Jesuit order that runs it.

The plaintiff’s legal team said it subsequently gathered information showing that the school had used millions of dollars in donations from alumni, parents and other benefactors to pay off people who claimed they’d been abused by Modica and others. The lawsuit doesn't provide any details about sources for that statement.

Other former Jesuit staffers that the school has acknowledged were abusers include priest Neil Carr, a teacher named Donald Dickerson who was studying to be a priest, and Claude Ory, a religious brother who like Modica worked on the maintenance staff.

The suit accuses the school of withholding knowledge of the transactions from various volunteer boards that help operate Jesuit, and of omitting them from reports, fiscal statements and financial summaries issued by the institution.

The suit says the plaintiff and his legal team met with Jesuit representatives on Oct. 24 in an effort to negotiate an out-of-court settlement.

It says the plaintiff was “verbally attacked” by a lawyer for Jesuit, causing him further emotional pain. It says the alleged treatment ran counter to the Jesuit order’s prior claim that “the good of anyone who may have been abused is always our primary concern.”

In a statement Wednesday, Denenea and Gisleson said it was “sickening” that “a member of the Jesuit alumni family … could be revictimized by the same institution.”

Jesuit High is one of many local Catholic institutions to be ensnared in the church’s decades-old clergy abuse scandal.

Months after the crisis was reignited by the summer 2018 publication of a Pennsylvania grand jury report exposing hundreds of undisclosed clergy abuse cases, a man named Richard Windmann spoke out publicly about a $450,000 settlement Jesuit paid him for abuse he said Modica and Carr inflicted on him when he was an adolescent in the late 1970s.

Details of other settlements involving Modica, Carr and other personnel at the school also surfaced, triggering additional complaints. Some resulted in lawsuits, a few of which are still pending. Others have been resolved or are being handled through private mediation.

The Jesuit order last December included Carr, Dickerson and Ory on a roster of members who were credibly accused of abuse. Modica was omitted from the list because he was not a member of the order.