ORLANDO (FL)
Orlando Sentinel [Orlando FL]
May 30, 2025
By Stephen Hudak and Silas Morgan
A lawsuit seeks “not less than $25 million” in damages from the Diocese or Orlando for alleged negligence.
A New York man filed a lawsuit Friday against the Diocese of Orlando alleging he was molested by a priest while a student at a Catholic school in Brevard County — the same priest who was killed last year by his childhood friend.
The lawsuit seeks “not less than $25 million” in damages from the diocese for alleged negligence “arising from the sexual abuse of a child” by Father Robert “Bob” Hoeffner, 76, who was shot to death Jan. 28, 2024, in his Palm Bay home.
Hoeffner had spent 25 years in Orlando parishes, including a stint as a teacher at Bishop Moore Catholic High School, before taking a post in Brevard. He retired in 2016.
The lawsuit claims the diocese was warned of Hoeffner’s inappropriate behavior with young boys but took no action — a charge the diocese denies.
Palm Bay police said Brandon Kapas, 24, killed Hoeffner, Sally Joan Hoeffner, 69, the priest’s housemate and sister, and Kapas’ grandfather, William Michael Kapas, 78, who was fatally shot at a separate residence. Kapas also wounded two Palm Bay police officers before they shot and killed him.
Police said at the time they had not been able to identify any motive or relationship between Kapas and the priest.
But a 76-page investigative police report now shows Kapas’ aunt, with whom he’d been living, told investigators the priest had bought Kapas a Nissan Sentra and shared a bank account with him. The two also had a “weird” relationship, according to Hoeffner’s surviving sister, the report said.
After the murders, the aunt told police she suspected Hoeffner had sexually abused her nephew, though the young man never told her that, the report shows. The aunt and her husband described the relationship between Kapas and Hoeffner as “unhealthy.”
The lawsuit, filed by the Herman Law firm in Boca Raton, alleges Hoeffner abused Shawn Teuber, who now lives in New York but as a child attended St. Joseph Catholic School in Palm Bay.
The lawsuit claims Hoeffner was a “prolific sex abuser of children, particularly young boys, he encountered in his duties” for the church. It suggests he abused Brandon Kapas, but doesn’t make that claim definitively.
Teuber, 26, called Palm Bay police after the shootings to tell officers Hoeffner had molested him when he was a boy. He told police he went to Catholic school with Kapas but did not know for sure if Kapas or other children also had been abused.
At a press conference in Orlando on Friday, Teuber said he still has sleep problems and mood swings because of the abuse. He feels anxiety whenever he walks by a church, and does not consider himself a person of faith anymore.
He hopes his lawsuit and public discussion of his case will help others who were abused as children.
“I want to be the voice that you’re not alone, and that I’m here and I believe you,” he said.
Teuber said he was shocked by the Hoeffners’ killings.
Kapas “was not a violent person, and he had the most warm heart,” Teuber said. “He would basically give you his last dollar in his pocket to help other people … I almost didn’t want to believe it.”
Jennifer Drow, a diocese spokesperson, said in an email Friday that the Diocese of Orlando “was not made aware of any allegations of abuse during Fr. Robert Hoeffner’s pastoral leadership, nor after he retired in 2016. We continue to pray for the Palm Bay and St. Joseph communities and all involved.”
At the conference, attorney Jeff Herman said the abuse began after Hoeffner started asking Teuber about sexual issues during confessions. Teuber said the priest would “use” some of what he confided in him, including from confessions, but didn’t explain how.
The alleged sexual abuse took place from 2012 — when Teuber was in seventh grade — through 2014, and occurred on multiple occasions and in different locations, including in the school counselor’s office, at the priest’s Palm Bay home and in the priest’s car.
According to the lawsuit, Teuber frequently spent time in 2013 and 2014 with Kapas at the priest’s home.
“There, Father Bob sexually abused plaintiff in his bedroom on multiple occasions. Often, following these abuse incidents, the priest’s sister Sally was waiting outside the bedroom with B.K., who would then enter the bedroom with Father Bob while the plaintiff waited outside with Sally.”
B.K. is a reference to Brandon Kapas, Herman said Friday.
Another student told a school counselor he was concerned about what Hoeffner would do to Teuber and Kapas when he would take them into classrooms alone, but no action was taken, Herman said.
He wants the diocese to release Hoeffner’s internal file and hopes to obtain it as a result of discovery in the lawsuit.
The church and the school “were expressly warned that he was doing something inappropriate with Shawn and another boy,” he said. But Teuber’s family was never alerted, nor was anyone else. “The parishioners, the students and their families were never warned,” he added.
“It was covered up, and those poor boys were served up to this alleged predator,” Herman said.
Hoeffner, ordained in 1973, had moved from service in Orlando in 1998 to Palm Bay, becoming pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church. Both the parish and an affiliated Catholic school are named as co-defendants in the 12-page lawsuit.
The diocese said he moved to be closer to his parents, who were in poor health.
According to the investigative report, neighbors recalled seeing a male matching Kapas’ description at the Hoeffners’ home on a number of occasions, “but it appeared to always be friendly interactions.”
On the day the Hoeffners’ bodies were discovered, police said they found no evidence of forced entry at the home and “nothing appeared to have been rummaged through.”