NEW YORK (NY)
Daily News
June 23, 2019
By Rocco Parascandola
Two men have accused a priest, who is now dead, of raping them in the rectory at their Brooklyn parish in the 1980s, the Daily News has learned.
The allegations were laid out Friday in an order to show cause filed by their lawyer, Keith Sullivan, in Brooklyn State Supreme Court, which names the Diocese of Brooklyn and the Church of St. Patrick. They have accused the Rev. John Abrams of raping them when they were students and altar boys at St. Patrick Catholic elementary school in Bay Ridge.
They were 10 to 13 years old at the time. Both graduated in 1987. They knew each other, according to Sullivan, who was hired by one victim several months ago, then learned of the second victim while investigating the allegations.
According to affidavits filed by the men, who are in their 40s, they met Abrams, who was assigned to St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church, while in sixth grade. He befriended them and their friends, and drove them to various places, such as a Bensonhurst bike store, movies and Jones Beach. The men were identified in the affidavits as John Doe.
“During these rides Father Abrams supplied us with beer, cigarettes and pornographic magazines,” one of the men said in the affidavits. “It was also during this time that Father John Abrams lured me into his residence inside St. Patrick’s rectory and sexually assaulted me and raped me on numerous occasions.
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