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Lawsuit Alleges Abuse by Priest
Theater Producer Says Incidents Took Place at Summer Camp in 1960s By Anne Miller Albany Times Union [Schenectady NY] October 13, 2005 SCHENECTADY -- A Manhattan businessman and theater producer raised in Loudonville contends that a former Albany priest molested him while both were at Camp Tekawitha, a summer camp on Lake Luzerne, about 40 years ago. The priest, identified in court papers as the Rev. Joseph Romano, was a seminarian working at the camp. The businessman, identified as J. David Enright IV, was 7 years old. Advertisement John A. Aretakis, Enright's attorney, has filed a summons in New York County Court seeking $5 million from Romano, Bishop Howard J. Hubbard and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany. Enright, 51, claims Romano molested him several times during two summers at the overnight camp "in 1961 or 1962." Enright also has stated that the encounters led to him being homosexual. A man identified as Enright said, via speakerphone from his Manhattan home, that he is coming forward now after learning that Romano has been seeking to be reinstated. In 2003, Romano had already retired from the priesthood when Hubbard placed him on administrative leave after two other men alleged abuse. Kenneth Goldfarb, spokesman for the Albany diocese, said that the diocese had offered Enright counseling and suggested he contact a mediation program for such cases established by Judge Howard A. Levine in Albany. Goldfarb said Enright did neither. Enright says he wrote to the bishop Sept. 2. He received what he and Goldfarb called the standard response from Assistance Coordinator Theresa F. Rodrigues. Enright then decided to file suit. |
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