MASSACHUSETTS
Daily Hampshire Gazette
By DIANE BRONCACCIO
For the Gazette
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
GREENFIELD — If anyone has no need to see “Spotlight” — a movie about the Boston Globe’s 2002 investigation of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests — it’s probably John Stobierski, a Greenfield-based lawyer who has more or less lived the story.
Over the past 23 years, Stobierski has met with hundreds of families who told him disturbing stories of misplaced trust in and betrayal by clergymen. He has successfully litigated at least 80 cases, resulting in settlements of at least $10 million.
He was invited to the star-studded Boston premiere of “Spotlight” at the end of October. “I didn’t need to go that far to see a movie,” he remarked in his corner office at Stobierski & Connor law firm in Greenfield.
But last weekend, Stobierski did see the movie at Cinemark in Hadley.
“I think it’s a wonderful movie that everyone should see,” said Stobierski. “My involvement in this whole thing starts at the end of that movie — which was when that first piece (on clergy abuse) was published. But it only captures one chapter of an incredibly long story.” …
He had only been practicing law in Greenfield for a few years when the Rev. Richard R. Lavigne of Shelburne Falls was first arrested in October 1991 on charges of molesting three boys in St. Joseph’s parish. Lavigne eventually pleaded guilty and was placed on probation for 10 years and ordered to spend six months in a treatment program for sex abusers at a Maryland hospital.
Stobierski recalled that Superior Court Judge Guy Volterra, who gave Lavigne such a light sentence, was quoted in one news story as saying, “This story doesn’t belong anywhere but on the back page of any newspaper.”
The Recorder reported June 25, 1992, that “The judge, in sentencing, lambasted media for blowing the case out of proportion. Volterra said Lavigne’s outstanding ministry to the people has been destroyed by his behavior toward the young who were entrusted to his care.”
Volterra went on to say that the media had made the trial a “cause celebre” that did not merit such widespread attention.
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