BishopAccountability.org
 
  Oregon's Accused Clergy

By Ashbel S. Green
Sunday Oregonian
July 7, 2002

Since 1985, 29 Catholic clergy members have been accused in lawsuits of sexually abusing children in Oregon. The following is a numbered list of all of the accused and maps of where the alleged abuse occurred.

(1) Rev. Maurice Grammond

Parishes: Our Lady of Victory, Seaside; St. Michael's, Oakridge; Our Lady of Sorrows, Southeast Portland; St. Mary's Home for Boys, Beaverton; St. Catherine of Siena, Mill City; St. Boniface, Sublimity.

Accused of molesting 46 boys between 1951 and 1984.

Grammond is in a Gresham home for Alzheimer's patients.

The Archdiocese of Portland settled with 25 plaintiffs in 2000.

(2) Rev. David Hazen

St. Pius X Catholic Church, Klamath Falls; St. Mary's parish, Pendleton; St. Helen's Catholic Church, Junction City.

Accused of molesting 17 boys from the late 1950s to the late 1970s. He is the only accused priest in the Diocese of Baker, which covers Eastern Oregon.

Deceased.

The Baker Diocese settled one case in 1997 for a small sum. Sixteen other complainants are pending.

(3) Rev. Thomas B. Laughlin

Parishes: All Saints, Northeast Portland; St. Mary's, Corvallis; and others.

Laughlin, who admitted sexually abusing at least a half-dozen boys in the 1970s, was convicted of sex abuse in 1983. He is no longer a priest and lives in New Mexico.

The Portland Archdiocese setted one lawsuit against Laughlin in 1986 for $500,000. Five complaints of alleged abuse in Portland and Corvallis are pending.

(4) Rev. Rocco Perone

St. Philip Neri Catholic Church, Southeast Portland.

Accused of repeatedly molesting two boys between the early and late 1950s. Attorneys say several other men are considering claims against Perone, who moved to Salt Lake City in 1956, served in Austin, Texas, from 1957 to 1988, and spent three years in Scarsdale, NY., before returning to Texas in 1991.

Deceased

Both suits are pending

(5) Rev. Carl Wachter

The Christie School, Marylhurst

A Portland parish priest, Wachter is accused of molesting 7- and 8-year-old sisters who temporarily stayed at the school after losing their home in the 1948 Vanport flood. The suit says a nun who worked at the school saw the abuse yet directed the girls to spend time with Wachter when he later visited the school.

Deceased

The suit is pending.

(6) Rev. Mel Bucher

St. Anthony's Catholic Church, Tigard

Accused of sexually abusing a boy from 1968 to 1972 and later sending him about 100 pages of poems, some sexually suggestive. Bucher admitted having sexual contact with his accuser once, when he temporarily left the priesthood and lived in a Beaverton apartment. Bucher later returned to the church.

Bucher is in California.

The suit was settled in 2001.

(7) Rev. Aldo Orso-Manzonetta

St. Michael the Archangel, Southwest Portland

Accused of sexually abusing four altar boys between 1958 and 1974 mostly in his priest quarters at the church. One plaintiff said Orso-Manzonetta abused him after persuading him to spend the night at the church at midnight Mass on Easter weekend.

Deceased

The Portland Archodiocese settled the suits in 2001 for an undisclosed sum

(8) Rev. Francis Ford

Ascension Catholic Church, Southeast Portland

Accused of repeatedly sexually molesting a boy between 1961 and 1963 in Portland and on a trip to Seattle's World Fair.

Deceased

The suit is pending.

(9) Rev. Clement Frank

St. Mary's Catholic Church, Mount Angel

Accused of raping a boy in the early 1950s in a basement. Frank was later principal at Mt. Angel Seminary Preparatory School.

Deceased

The suit is pending.

(10) Rev. Kenneth Jacques

Mount Angel Seminary Preparatory School

Accused of sexually abusing two boys on trips in 1978.

Jacques denies wrongdoing but was placed on administrative leave in April.

The suit is pending.

(11) Rev. Martin Thielen

Central Catholic High School and St. Stephen (Southeast Portland

Sexually molested a boy between 1956 and 1962.

Retired but was semi-active at St. Stephens.

The suit is pending.

(12) Rev. Martin Doherty

Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Gervais

Accused by one boy of sexually abusing a number of boys in 1956, sometimes in conjunction with Rev. Edmund Raleigh.

Deceased.

The suit is pending.

(13) Lawrence M. Halsey

Marist High School, Eugene

Halsey, a former Marist monk, is accused of repeatedly sexually abusing a high school girl between 1968 and 1972. The plaintiff says Halsey seduced her when he was her math tutor and continued to do so when he became principal. She says the abuse continued even after she reported it.

Halsey left the Marist Brothers and reportedly lives in Eastern Oregon.

The suit is pending.

(14) Rev. Archibald McDowell

University of Portland, North Portland

McDowell, who hosted a television program sponsored by the Portland Archdiocese, is accused of molesting a boy in 1956.

Deceased

The suit is pending.

(15) John Doe

Unknown parish

Accused of molesting a 10-year-old boy during a one-week spiritual between 1968 and 1970 at Camp Howard, a Catholic retreat on Mount Hood.

He has not been identified.

The suit is pending.

(16) Revs. M, T and R

All Saints and at least one other Portland parish

Accused of molesting a girl in Portland between the mid- 1950s to the late-1960s when she was 3 to 18 years old.

Unknown whether alive.

The suit is pending.

(17) Rev. William McLeod

All Saints, Northeast Portland; Sacred Heart, Medford; St. Joseph's, Jacksonville.

Accused of molesting two boys between 1938 and 1957.

Deceased.

One suit was settled in 2001.

(18) Rev. Frank Duffy

St. Luke's Catholic Church, Woodburn

Accused of repeatedly sexually molesting 6- and 7-year-old sisters in his church residence in 1967 and 1968.

Deceased.

The suit is pending.

(19) Rev. John Goodrich

St. John Fisher Catholic Church, Southwest Portland Accused of sexually abusing a boy from 1974 to 1988

Deceased

The Portland Archodiocese settled the suit in 1990 for $446,684, according to a subsequent lawsuit.

(20) Rev. James P. McSorely

St. Alice Catholic Church, Springfield Accused of molesting a boy in 1964 McSorely, a member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, is reportedly in Oakland, Calif.

The suit is pending.

(21) Rev. Edmund Raleigh

St. John the Apostle, Oregon City Accused by one boy of sexually abusing a number of boys in 1956, sometimes in conjunction with the Rev. Martin Doherty.

Deceased

The suit is pending.

(22) Rev. Andrew Ronan

The Grotto, Portland.

Accused of sexually abusing a boy in the mid-1960s. The suit also accuses the Catholic church of repeatedly moving Ronan to conceal his abuse of children.

Deceased

The suit is pending.

(23) Rev. Cosmos White

Mount Angel Seminary Preparatory School Accused of sexually abusing a boy during the 1964-65 school year. Not clear what his full name is or whether he is alive.

The suit is pending.

(24) Rev. Louis Charvet

Mount Angel Abbey and Seminary Preperatory School

Accused of molesting two girls and a boy between the early 1950s and the mid-1970s.

Charvet, 82, who denies wrongdoing, was removed from Sacred Heart church in Gervais in April.

Three claims are pending.

(25) Rev. Pacome St. Arnaud

Mount Angel Seminary Preparatory School.

Accused of molesting a boy in 1976 on a camping trip to Lake Merwin. St. Arnaud later left the Benedictine monks.

His whereabouts are unknown

The suit is pending

(26) Rev. Phillip Mark Wolfe

St. Anthony's Catholic Church, Tigard

Accused of molesting a young teen-age boy in 1982 while visiting from California. Later committed suicide.

Deceased

The case was settled in April for an undisclosed sum.

(27) Rev. Edmund Boyle

St. Mary's Home for Boys, Beaverton

Accused of molesting a boy from 1968 to 1971 at the former Catholic-run home.

Boyle's whereabouts are unknown

The suit is pending.

The information in this graphic came from lawsuits and plaintiff's attorneys. Where possible, information was confirmed with the Portland archdiocese. Only Laughlin was prosecuted and admitted abusing children. Even in settled cases, abuse was not always admitted.

 
 

Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.