Twenty-Fourth Suit Filed Against Priest

The Miami Herald has reported that Reverend Neil Doherty, currently in jail in Broward County waiting for his next trial on sexual abuse to begin, has also been accused by "John Doe No. 69" for repeated drugging and sexual abuse.

This will be the 24^th time Doherty, a retired Roman Catholic priest, has been named in a sexual abuse lawsuit.  The complaint was filed November 12 against the Archdiocese of Miami.

"John Doe No. 69", 39, claims that Doherty, 67, repeatedly drugged and then raped him in the mid-1980's starting when he was 14 and going through to his 15^th year. Doe, a runaway at the time, met Doherty at Keystone Trailer Park in Miami.

Doe claims that Doherty wore his priest's collar and would "cruise the areas of the trailer park in his car." Doherty was assigned to St. Mary's Cathedral in Miami at the time. Jeffrey Herman, attorney for Doe said that that "The victim is still struggling."

The lawsuit is claiming that the Diocese "continued to place Doherty in roles with access to minors" though they knew he was abusing boys in the 1970's.  The information - that the diocese was aware of past accusations against Doherty - came to light in a 2003 memorandum by Broward state attorney's office.  The office disclosed that a $50,000 settlement was made in 1994 with a student at Hollywood's Chaminade High School decades before.

Herman has been at the helm of dozens of cases involving the archdiocese; and Doherty was named in at least half of them. 

Doherty served in South Florida for three decades.  The archdiocese put him on administrative leave in 2002 while he was assigned to St. Vincent's church in Margate.

Mary Ross Agosta, archdiocese spokeswoman, released this statement: "Rev. Neil Doherty retired in 2002 without faculties; he is not permitted to wear clerical garb, celebrate the sacrament, have an assignment nor is he listed on the archdiocese-san website."

Herman found that Doherty is listed as a retired Miami priest in the 2010 Official Catholic Directory.  In response Agosta stated, "Since Archbishop Thomas Wenski's arrival in the Archdiocese of Miami, he has notified the Official Catholic Directory that priests not in good standing with the Church will not be listed."

Agosta said that Doherty has yet to be defrocked, also known as being laicized, and that "In general, the laicization process can take a few years. Any requests to the Vatican from a bishop for this process would be handled confidentially."

Doherty, while residing in Lake Worth, was arrested on November 4 because he violated terms made in 2006 for his pretrial release.  Those terms stemmed from sexual abuse charges, dating back to the 1990s, from a now 24 year-old man.  The archdiocese settled that civil case in 2007.

Doherty, under house arrest and electrical monitoring while waiting for trial, had disconnected his GPS device eight times since 2009.  Because of his failure to allow monitoring a Broward judge jailed him until his trial.

No trial date has been set.

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