Lawsuit Filed Against Diocese, Randolph Church

JAMESTOWN (NY)
The Post-Journal

January 6, 2020

By John Whittaker

An unnamed woman has filed a Child Victims Act lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo and St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church in Randolph.

The four-page court filing was received Dec. 30 in state Supreme Court in Erie County, where the headquarters for the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo is located. A woman accuses Father Joseph P. Friel of sexually abusing and sexually assaulting her while Friel was serving as priest at St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church while the woman was a child taking religious instruction at the church.

“Father Joseph P. Friel threatened the minor plaintiff not to tell anyone about the sexual abuse and if she did ‘the devil would get her,’” the woman’s lawsuit filing states.

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