RHODE ISLAND/WEST VIRGINIA
Providence Journal
By Karen Lee Ziner
Journal Staff Writer Posted Feb. 17, 2016
An Episcopal priest embroiled in a sex-abuse scandal at the elite St. George’s School in Middletown was sued 20 years ago by a West Virginia man who said the Rev. Howard W. White Jr. sexually molested him when he was approximately 11 years old.
The suit also asserts that The Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of West Virginia (“the Diocese”) “conspired” to cover up White’s alleged misconduct to avoid “public knowledge, criminal prosecution, disgrace and scandal.”
In his 1996 complaint, Richard Albright stated that the Diocese “knew, or should have known” of White’s “alleged proclivity for deviant sexual behavior, but failed to alert its parishioners of the potential danger to their children,” and was vicariously liable for White’s actions.
Instead, the Diocese kept appointing White to various assignments “within the Diocese of West Virginia and elsewhere, without reporting the criminal sexual misconduct to law enforcement authorities.” White, the suit alleged, “is and was unfit” to be a priest, and “is and was a severe danger to persons who were his potential prey.”
The Journal located the documents this week.
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