FALL RIVER (MA)
Wicked Local Dighton
Brian Fraga
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted May. 13, 2014
FALL RIVER — The Diocese of Fall River was first notified in 2012 of sexual abuse allegations against the late Monsignor Maurice Souza, diocesan spokesman John Kearns told reporters Tuesday.
Kearns said independent investigators hired by the diocese did not find evidence to support some of the claims made by two former altar servers that Souza sexually abused the boys for almost 10 years in the late 1970s and mid ‘80s. Kearns said the diocese offered both men counseling, and tried to resolve the issue through mediation, but he claimed that their attorney, Mitchell Garabedian of Boston, called off the mediation in May 2013.
“We wanted to resolve it through mediation, but that process was stopped,” Kearns said.
Garabedian said the mediation was unsuccessful because the diocese was “unreasonable in its position.”
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