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  New Allegation against Priest Named in Bernardin Lawsuit

Associated Press
December 18, 1993

DAYTON, Ohio — Another man has said he was sexually assaulted by a priest named in a sexual abuse lawsuit against Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, the Dayton Daily News reported Saturday.

Tony Farquis of Griffith, Ind., said that the Rev. Ellis Harsham abused him 12 years ago. Farquis, 30, said Harsham repeatedly touched his genitals while he was a senior at Badin High School in Hamilton and Harsham was teaching there.

Harsham, 52, heads a campus ministry at Wright State University in Dayton. He did not return a message left at St. Luke's rectory in Beavercreek, where he lives.

His attorney, Thomas Miller, denied Farquis' allegations. "He (Harsham) is just absolutely bewildered by why this gentleman would come forward and say what he's saying," he said.

A federal judge in Cincinnati ruled Friday that Harsham and Bernardin will be tried together in a $ 10 million sexual abuse lawsuit filed by Steven Cook on Nov. 12. Bernardin had asked for a separate trial. He and Harsham both deny any wrongdoing.

A Cincinnati bartender said he and Harsham had consensual sex in a motel last year, the Dayton Daily News also reported Saturday.

The paper had previously reported that four former students at Carroll High School near Dayton said Harsham either seduced or tried to seduce them during the early 1970s.

 
 

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