FLORIDA
Sun Sentinel
By James D. Davis, Staff writer
November 16, 2012
The Rev. Neil Doherty, currently in Broward County jail awaiting trial on a range of abuse-related charges, was named Thursday in a new $5 million lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Miami.
The suit says Doherty, 69, formerly a pastor at St. Vincent Catholic Church in Margate, sexually abused a 15-year-old Miami-Dade County boy for 18 months starting around 1984, allegedly plying him with drugs, wine and money. Doherty is not named as a defendant.
Attorney Jeff Herman, who filed the suit in the Miami-Dade County’s 11th Judicial Circuit Court on Thursday morning, said the archdiocese allowed Doherty access to children even after learning of other sexual abuse accusations.
“For years, the archdiocese knew he was abusing boys,” Herman said in a telephone interview. “Instead of protecting them, they protected him.”
Archdiocesan spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta said she couldn’t comment directly until she had seen the lawsuit. And Doherty’s attorney, J. David Bogenschutz of Fort Lauderdale, did not return two calls for comment on Thursday.
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