NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The Advocate
December 11, 2018
By Ramon Antonio Vargas
A volunteer firefighter from North Carolina alleged in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that he was sexually abused numerous times as a seventh-grader in New Orleans by George Brignac, a former Catholic Church deacon and suspected serial child molester.
Echoing other cases against the disgraced clergyman, Morris Daniels’ suit also contends that he is owed damages because local Catholic officials failed to protect him from Brignac, who was assigned to the plaintiff’s school after being tried — though acquitted — on charges that he abused a child while teaching elsewhere.
The lawsuit comes amid a new focus on decades-old clerical abuse alleged to have occurred in New Orleans and a push by victims to bring the allegations out into the open. It follows the release last month by New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond of a list of 57 credibly-accused clergy — which named Brignac — and the local Jesuit order’s release last week of a similar list.
In the past, victims have often preferred to follow a private mediation process to settle sex abuse claims involving the church, including a number of others who have accused Brignac.
But Daniels is among a growing group of plaintiffs in New Orleans and elsewhere who have taken such claims to the courts in an effort to shed light on alleged abuse and the church’s failure to stop it.
“They could’ve done something about it, but they didn’t,” Daniels said in an interview. “They didn’t take care of us as kids. They just let it happen.”
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