BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW TV
May 2, 2019
By Charlie Specht
When Niagara Falls attorney Paul K. Barr was sexually abused by the Rev. Michael Freeman in 1980, the Diocese of Buffalo quietly transferred the priest.
Diocesan leaders chose the Rev. Bernard M. Mach as his replacement — but Mach was a pedophile, too.
And when Barr confided in another church leader — a youth minister at Sacred Heart Church — about the abuse, Barr had no idea of knowing he was talking to someone who would also go on to be accused of sexually abusing minors.
Those allegations are laid out in a lawsuit filed on behalf of Barr this week in State Supreme Court in Niagara County. Click here to view a copy of the lawsuit. The Buffalo News first reported the filing of the lawsuit.
In an interview with 7 Eyewitness News, Barr confirmed he rejected the diocese’s previous settlement offer of $45,000.
“I rejected the offer from the diocese because I wanted to show my support for other people who had been abused, either by clergy or other institutions,” Barr said.
The suit was filed by a New York City law firm, but Barr has plenty of experience as a litigator dealing with issues relating to the Catholic Church. He said he is serving as legal counsel to multiple victims of child sexual abuse in the Buffalo Diocese.
“It’s such an important issue,” Barr said. “I can’t tell you how many of the new cases I got who tell me, I’m the first person they’ve ever told about this.”
The lawsuit states Freeman “carefully groomed” Barr in 1980 while the boy was preparing for confirmation. One evening at Sacred Heart, the priest warned Barr about a supposed medical “condition” that caused sterility and was common among athletes. The priest told Barr he was trained as an Air Force chaplain to detect the condition.
After ordering him to pull down his pants, Freeman “massaged and manipulated” his penis, the lawsuit states.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.