BISMARCK (ND)
The Dickinson Press
By: Bryan Horwath, The Dickinson Press
A Colorado man suing the Catholic Diocese of Bismarck for negligence over sexual abuse by a priest who has said he suffered in the 1970s has lifted his anonymity.
Colorado resident Steven Crochet, 46, is alleging in civil documents filed in U.S. District Court in Hawaii that he was abused by the Rev. Maurice G. McNeely, who at the time was under the supervision of the Diocese of Bismarck, at an Army base in Hawaii in the mid-1970s. Crochet said he was an alter boy at a Fort Shafter chapel where McNeely ministered to soldiers and families.
The complaint claims McNeely forced Crochet to perform oral sex on him and states the diocese should have known the priest was a pedophile and warned the plaintiff’s family. Now in his 80s, retired and living in Michigan, McNeely is named as a defendant in the civil case, but has not been charged criminally.
Crochet said he was able to block out many of the memories of the abuse, which took place when was 11 and 12 years old, but was inundated with a flood recollections in adulthood, causing him personal, emotional and financial difficulties.
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