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North Carolina Child Sex Abuse Lawsuit Names Two Priests as the Perpetrators

In Buncombe County Superior Court, a man has filed a North Carolina child sex abuse lawsuit seeking damages for the physical and emotional abuse he says he allegedly suffered as a teenager at the hands of two priests at the Basilica of St. Lawrence in Asheville. One of the priests that he names as his perpetrator, pastor Father Justine Paul Pechulis, died in 1983. The other priest he says molested him is retired Father John McCole.

The defendants named in the North Carolina clergy sexual abuse lawsuit are the Diocese of Charlotte and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The plaintiff, Steven Souder, claims that church officials took part in a conspiracy to protect pedophile priests, including McCole and Pechulis.

Souder, who used to be an altar boy, says that the two priests forced him to take part in group oral sex while on a trip to Asheville during the 1970?s. He accuses McCole of taking advantage of him and sexually abusing him several times. McCole denies the alleged abuse incidents ever happened. Souder?s complaint also claims that when he reported the abuse to a higher ranking clergy member, he was told that what was happening to him wasn?t inappropriate.

The plaintiff, who suffers from mental illness, says he repressed the memories of the abuse for years until 2007 when the archdiocese sent him a letter talking about clergy sex abuse.

North Carolina law doesn?t count the time when a person?s memories of sexual abuse were repressed toward the statute of limitations for filing sexual abuse lawsuits. The statute of limitations only begins running after the memories have been recovered.

Clergy Sex Abuse
In the last seven years, hundreds of people have come forward claiming that priests sexually abused them. Even as the clergy sex abuse scandal rocked the United States, victims in other countries also stepped forward to make similar allegations against the priests in the areas where they lived. The leaders of the Catholic Church have been accused of covering up the abuse incidents for decades, which has allowed pedophile priests to strike at new victims over and over again.

Sexual abuse of any kind causes serious personal injury to victims and their families and can be grounds for a North Carolina personal injury lawsuit.

'70s altar boy alleges abuse & that Krol abetted cover-up, Philadelphia Daily News, June 2, 2009

Sex abuse lawsuit names deceased Asheville priest, Citizen-Times, June 2, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Spotlight Abuse in the Catholic Church, The Boston Globe

Basilica of St. Lawrence

Full post as published by North Carolina Injury Lawyer Blog on June 03, 2009 (boomark / email).