Will Child Victims Act prompt false claims of abuse?

BUFFALO (NY)
The Buffalo News

September 3, 2019

By Dan Herbeck and Jay Tokasz

A Buffalo man’s vivid account of being sexually assaulted as an 8-year-old boy sounded like a scene out of a twisted horror movie.

The man, now 44, complained last year to the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo that the Rev. Roy Herberger more than three decades ago took him to a Lackawanna home, tied him up, poured oil on his back and then raped him, as another priest videotaped the abuse.

Herberger, despite vehemently denying any wrongdoing, was suspended from priestly ministry, and the diocese hired attorney Scott F. Riordan to investigate the claims.

Riordan, who spent six months on the case, found glaring inconsistencies in the man’s story. In his investigative report, Riordan determined that the abuse allegations against Herberger were “completely false.”

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