MANCHESTER (NH)
Boston Globe
October 15, 2025
By Steven Porter
The ruling means a Catholic diocese will be shielded from a 1970s child rape claim at a N.H. summer camp, and other victims could be barred from bringing similar claims to court
A lawsuit claiming the Catholic diocese in New Hampshire was negligent in its failure to protect kids from sexual abuse in the 1970s cannot proceed to trial, the state’s highest court ruled Wednesday, finding that a statute of limitations lawmakers repealed in 2020 still applies.
The plaintiff, Randy Ball, who filed his lawsuit in 2023, alleged he was about 8 years old when a priest raped him in the mid-1970s at Camp Fatima, a lakefront summer camp for boys in Gilmanton Iron Works. That priest, the Rev. Karl E. Dowd Jr., was employed by the diocese as the camp’s director despite having previously been accused of fondling a teenager in Keene, N.H.
The statute of limitations that was in effect in New Hampshire at the time allowed childhood victims of sexual abuse to file claims in court until two years after they reached adulthood, which meant the plaintiff in this case had until his 20th birthday, in 1986, to file his claims.
When that deadline passed, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Manchester gained a “vested right” to be free from liability, and the Legislature cannot subsequently revoke that right, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled, citing a provision of the state’s constitution that expressly prohibits retrospective laws.
The decision, penned by Associate Justice Patrick E. Donovan, acknowledged that this ruling means other victims may be barred from bringing claims for which the statute of limitations expired before the 2020 change to New Hampshire law took effect.
“We are acutely aware,” Donovan wrote, “that victims of child sex abuse are some of the most vulnerable victims who deserve all of the protections and remedies available in our judicial system. … Our role, however, in our co-equal, tripartite form of government is to interpret the constitution and resolve disputes arising under it.”
Scott H. Harris, who represents the plaintiff alongside fellow attorneys Jesse J. O’Neill and Stephen A. Weiss, released a statement saying they understand the court’s reasoning.
“We are disappointed in this result as it means that those like Randy Ball will be forever foreclosed from seeking to hold their assailants accountable, despite the Legislature’s attempt to remove that barrier created by the limitations period,” they said. “The Supreme Court has balanced the Legislature’s action and constitutional safeguards and concluded that the constitutional safeguards win out.”
In a joint statement released by the attorneys, Ball and his husband, John Thomas, said they are saddened by the court’s decision and its impact on survivors of abuse, but they won’t let their voices be silenced.
“Our advocacy will continue as we pursue a path by which all survivors of sexual abuse in New Hampshire may obtain justice,” they said.
This decision echoes what courts in some other states have said in similar cases. In Maine, where lawmakers tried in 2021 to revive claims of child sex abuse after the original statute of limitations expired, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled this year that the Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland had a vested right to be free from liability.
In Massachusetts, however, the Supreme Judicial Court has ruled lawmakers can retroactively expand a statute of limitations, and the Maryland Supreme Court ruled this year that the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington doesn’t enjoy a vested right to be free from liability just because a prior filing deadline passed.
The plaintiff’s attorneys in New Hampshire had asked for a decision similar to that reached in the Maryland case, but the justices declined. Although the Maryland court had “never squarely addressed” the core question at hand, the New Hampshire court has a long-established precedent the justices said shouldn’t be overturned without a clear demonstration that their earlier cases were wrongly decided.
Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston-based attorney who has long represented victims of clergy sex abuse, said New Hampshire should respond to this “painfully disappointing” decision by adopting a constitutional amendment to ensure survivors can have their day in court.
“The ruling prevents the courts from being a much-needed voice of validation and prevention on behalf of victims,” Garabedian said.
This lawsuit wasn’t the first allegation of predatory behavior at Camp Fatima, nor was it the first against Dowd. Several other claims came to light in the 2000s, after The Boston Globe Spotlight team’s 2002 reporting on the Catholic Church’s abuse crisis in Massachusetts spurred a nationwide reckoning.
The New Hampshire’s Attorney General’s Officelaunched an investigation in 2002 that concluded the state’s diocese could be criminally charged with endangering the welfare of minors for failing to protect them from priests who had abused kids in the past. In lieu of prosecution, the office reached an agreement with the diocese and released the facts that investigators had uncovered.
Dowd’s name appears among dozens on the diocese’s public list of priests credibly accused of abusing children, but he died in 2002 without a final determination of his guilt or innocence. An allegation against Dowd that the diocese received after his death was included in a $5 million settlement reached later that year with 62 people alleging abuse by 28 priests and three other workers.
An attorney for the diocese, Olivia F. Bensinger, released a statement Wednesday noting that it can be difficult to defend against lawsuits alleging decades-old misconduct because certain evidence and witnesses may no longer be available.
The diocese said it has spent more than two decades working with abuse survivors to provide pastoral care, counseling, and financial assistance, while implementing initiatives to ensure parishes, schools, and camps are safe environments for children and young people.
Meanwhile, many states have sought to give victims more time to file litigation seeking accountability from individuals and institutions, as society’s understanding of trauma and its complex impacts on victims has evolved. But survivors often still face a long series of legal roadblocks.
Robert M. Hoatson, president and co-founder of Road to Recovery Inc., a New Jersey-based nonprofit that has been serving victims of clergy sex abuse since 2005, said many survivors don’t begin to grapple with their childhood trauma until decades into their adult lives, and the New Hampshire Supreme Court’s decision is just the latest impediment for those seeking justice.
“This is the ongoing saga of innocent victims trying to get their cases heard,” he said.
While the court’s decision is dismaying, Hoatson said those who were abused decades ago should still come forward, report their abuse to the proper authorities, and hire an attorney to avoid being manipulated by powerful organizations like the Catholic Church.
“Anybody who was sexually abused as a child has the difficult burden of carrying that for the rest of his or her life,” he said. “But secrecy kills.”
This article has been updated to include statements from the plaintiff, his legal team, and the diocese.
This article has been updated to correct the name of the New Hampshire attorney general who launched the investigation. Philip T. McLaughlin launched the probe in 2002. His successor, Peter W. Heed, signed the office’s investigatory report as attorney general in 2003.