Child Victims Act lawsuit outlines new sex abuse accusations against former Avon priest

By Matt Leader
LivingstCounty News
August 14, 2020

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GENESEO - Another person victim has come forward with accusations that former Catholic priest Joseph E. Larrabee sexually abused him when he was a child.

The victim, whose name the County News is withholding to protect his privacy, is now in his 50s. In a civil complaint filed late last this month in Livingston County Supreme Court, he accused of Larrabee of sexually abusing him “on at least four occasions” in 1982 and 1983 when he was between the ages of 12 and 14. According to the filing, the abuse occurred in the St. Agnes rectory.

The alleged victim and his family were parishioners at the time the abuse occurred. He attended St. Agnes School and was an alter boy at St. Agnes Church, according to the filing.

Larrabee’s latest alleged victim is being represented by Simmons Hanly Conroy, a law firm in New York City, and the Law Office of Mitchell Garabedian, which is based in Boston. Garabedian is also representing eight other alleged victims of Larrabee in eight separate Child Victims Act suits filed in Livingston and Monroe counties since February 2020.

“The alleged sexual abuse of the nine victims spanned a period of approximately 1982 to 1993 when the victims were approximately 12 to 21 years old. The sexual abuse victims were all minors when the sexual abuse by Fr. Joseph E. Larrabee began,” said Garabedian in a statement to the County News. “The victims are now approximately 44 to 54 years old. Some victims allege that they were sexually abused by Fr. Larrabee multiple times over the course of years. Fr. Joseph E. Larrabee was assigned to either St. John The Evangelist Church in Rochester, Church of the Good Shepard in Henrietta, or St. Agnes Church in Avon at the time of the sexual abuse.”

The St. Agnes rectory as the location where Larrabee allegedly abused his victims is a commonality in some of the accusations against him.

Last month, former Avon resident Mark Rowe told the County News about how he was invited to a sleepover at the rectory by Larrabee in the early1980s when he was in his early teens.

“He’d have a group of all boys that would have a sleepover,” recalled Rowe. “We’d play games or whatever during the day and have pizza, just fun stuff, then hang out in the evening.”

During the sleepover, Larrabee groped Rowe’s genitals while they were sleeping next to each other in sleeping bags, Rowe said. Rowe said he told Larrabee to stop and the priest eventually did.

“He said ‘Are you sure?’ I said ‘Yup,’” said Rowe.

Rowe, who’s also being represented by Garabedian, filed suit against Larrabee last month in Livingston County Supreme Court.

Larrabee couldn’t be reached for comment.