New clergy sex abuse & cover up lawsuit filed

Predator priest’s current whereabouts are unknown

Two former Connecticut bishops are named as defendants

In 2001, cleric pled guilty to seeking sex from a child on the Internet

At least two other child molestation lawsuits have been filed against him

WHAT
Holding signs and photos at a news conference, a clergy sex abuse victim who has never spoken out publicly before will disclose and discuss his new civil abuse and cover up lawsuit against a now-defrocked and convicted Connecticut predator priest and two former bishops.

He and others will urge
--- Catholic officials to aggressively reach out to victims of Connecticut predator priests, and
--- anyone who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes to get help, call police, protect others and start healing

WHEN
Wednesday, March 3, 11:00 a.m.

WHERE
At an attorney’s office, 59 Elm Street (third floor) in New Haven

WHO
A Trumbull man who was molested and is bringing the suit, his father, and his two attorneys (one of whom is nationally-known clergy sex abuse expert)

VISUALS
Photos of the predator-priest and of victim as a boy will be available.

WHY
The Bridgeport Catholic diocese and two of its former bishops (Cardinal Edward Egan, now of New York, and the estate of the late Bishop Walter W. Curtis) are named as defendants in a child sex abuse and cover up lawsuit being filed today. The suit charges that between 1989 and 1992, starting when he was around ten years old, Brooks Thopsey was sexually molested by then-Fr. John J. Castaldo at St. Theresa’s parish in Trumbull. (It’s at 5301 Main Street. Phone 203 261 3676.)

Castaldo was arrested and charged in 2001 with having explicit sexual conversations on Internet with what he thought was 14 year old boy. (It was actually the police.) He admitted his guilt on those charges in August 2001 and was sentenced to one weekend in jail in New York and five years on probation.

Last year, a Trumbull man filed a similar suit charging Castaldo abused him at St. Theresa’s in the 1980s and that church officials concealed it. That suit is still pending. (Both suits – last year’s and today’s - are filed in New Haven Superior Court.) http://www.connpost.com/ci_11538046

In April 2002, Castaldo was sued for molesting another boy. That case settled in 2005.

Thopsey's attorneys are Joel T. Faxon of New Haven and Jeff Anderson of St. Paul MN. Anderson is the nation’s most experienced clergy sex abuse lawyer and has represented 2,000 men and women who were victimized by Protestant and Catholic clerics since 1983.

Curtis headed the Bridgeport diocese from 1961 through 1988, and Egan headed it from 1988 through 2000. Church officials say Castaldo was ordained in 1987 and was defrocked in 2001. (Often, bishops defrock only the most egregious, serial predator priests.)

Castaldo also worked at four other Bridgeport parishes: St. Mark’s in Stratford (1992-1994), St. Edward the Confessor in New Fairfield (1994-1998), St. Rose of Lima in Newtown (1998-2000), St. Maurice’s in Stamford (2000-2001), and Trinity Catholic High School in Stamford (1984-1986, when it was known as Stamford Catholic, and again from 1999-2001).

The suit seeks unspecified actual and punitive damages in excess of $15,000.

http://www.bishopaccountability.org/assign/Castaldo_John_J.htm

CONTACT
Attorney Joel Faxon (203 624 9500), Attorney Jeff Anderson (651 227 9990, 612 817 8665), David Clohessy of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, 314 566 9790 cell)