Mitchell Garabedian

Last updated

Mitchell "Mitch" Garabedian (born July 17, 1951) [1] is a lawyer known for representing sexual abuse victims in the Boston area during the Catholic priest sexual abuse scandal, including the cases against Paul Shanley, John Geoghan, and the Archdiocese of Boston. He also represented one of the people who accused Jerry Sandusky of sexual misconduct, and the man who accused Bryon Hefner, the husband of former Massachusetts Senate President Stan Rosenberg, of sexual assault, leading to Rosenberg's resignation. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Early life

Garabedian was the second of three children born to Armenian [5] parents Marsoob and Juyard Garabedian and grew up on a 375-acre farm in Methuen, Massachusetts. The first member of his family to attend college, he attended Boston University (CGS, 1971 and CAS, 1973). He continued his education by getting a master's degree in political science from Northeastern University and a J.D. degree from the New England School of Law. He was admitted to the bar in 1979. [3]

Career

Garabedian has worked on numerous sexual abuse cases. In August 2016, he represented seven of the 21 victims who settled sex abuse cases against 10 Irish Christian Brothers from Bergen Catholic High School in Oradell, New Jersey, for $1.9 million. [6] He was also with Heather Unruh during the November 2017 press conference when she alleged that Kevin Spacey molested her son. [7]

In the Geoghan case, Garabedian was able to reach a financial settlement with the Boston Archdiocese on behalf of 86 people. At the time they reached the settlement, the Church would pay more than $30 million and plaintiffs would not be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement. [8] Eventually, the Church pulled out of the $30 million settlement and settled for $10 million. [9]

Ted Danson portrayed Garabedian in the 2005 made-for-television film Our Fathers. Stanley Tucci portrayed him in the 2015 film Spotlight.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernard Francis Law</span> Catholic cardinal

Bernard Francis Law was an American cardinal of the Catholic Church, known largely for covering up the serial rape of children by Catholic priests. He served as Archbishop of Boston, archpriest of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, and Cardinal Priest of Santa Susanna, which was the American parish in Rome until 2017, when the American community was relocated to San Patrizio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catholic Church sexual abuse cases</span>

There have been many cases of sexual abuse of children by priests, nuns, and other members of religious life in the Catholic Church. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the cases have involved many allegations, investigations, trials, convictions, acknowledgement and apologies by Church authorities, and revelations about decades of instances of abuse and attempts by Church officials to cover them up. The abused include mostly boys but also girls, some as young as three years old, with the majority between the ages of 11 and 14. Criminal cases for the most part do not cover sexual harassment of adults. The accusations of abuse and cover-ups began to receive public attention during the late 1980s. Many of these cases allege decades of abuse, frequently made by adults or older youths years after the abuse occurred. Cases have also been brought against members of the Catholic hierarchy who covered up sex abuse allegations and moved abusive priests to other parishes, where abuse continued.

John Joseph "Jack" Geoghan was an American serial child rapist and Catholic priest assigned to parishes in the Archdiocese of Boston in Massachusetts. He was reassigned to several parish posts involving interaction with children, even after receiving treatment for pedophilia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts</span> Latin Catholic ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Massachusetts, United States

The Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in Western Massachusetts in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Boston.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, established in 1989, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization support group of survivors of clergy sexual abuse and their supporters in the United States. Barbara Blaine, a survivor of sex abuse by a priest, was the founding president. SNAP, which initially focused on the Roman Catholic Church, had 12,000 members in 56 countries as of 2012. It has branches for religious groups, such as SNAP Baptist, SNAP Orthodox, and SNAP Presbyterian, for non-religious groups, and for geographic regions, e.g., SNAP Australia and SNAP Germany.

This page documents Catholic Church sexual abuse cases by country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry Sandusky</span> American college football coach and convicted child sex offender (born 1944)

Gerald Arthur Sandusky is an American convicted serial child molester and retired college football coach. Sandusky served as an assistant coach for his entire career, mostly at Pennsylvania State University under Joe Paterno, from 1969 to 1999, the last 22 years as defensive coordinator. He received "Assistant Coach of the Year" awards in 1986 and 1999. Sandusky authored several books related to his football coaching experiences.

The Archdiocese of Boston sex abuse scandal was part of a series of Catholic Church sexual abuse cases in the United States that revealed widespread crimes in the American Catholic Church. In early 2002, TheBoston Globe published results of an investigation that led to the criminal prosecutions of five Roman Catholic priests and thrust the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy into the national spotlight. Another accused priest who was involved in the Spotlight scandal also pleaded guilty. The Globe's coverage encouraged other victims to come forward with allegations of abuse, resulting in numerous lawsuits and 249 criminal cases.

The sexual abuse cases in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon in the United States is an important chapter in the series of Catholic sex abuse cases in the United States. During its course in July 2004, the archdiocese under Archbishop John George Vlazny filed for bankruptcy.

The sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic diocese of Orange is an important chapter in the Catholic sexual abuse scandal in the United States.

There have been many lawsuits, criminal prosecutions, and scandals over sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy in the United States of America.

Catholic Church sexual abuse cases in Canada are well documented dating back to the 1960s. The preponderance of criminal cases with Canadian Catholic dioceses named as defendants that have surfaced since the 1980s strongly indicate that these cases were far more widespread than previously believed. While recent media reports have centred on Newfoundland dioceses, there have been reported cases—tested in court with criminal convictions—in almost all Canadian provinces. Sexual assault is the act of an individual touching another individual sexually and/or committing sexual activities forcefully and/or without the other person's consent. The phrase Catholic sexual abuse cases refers to acts of sexual abuse, typically child sexual abuse, by members of authority in the Catholic church, such as priests. Such cases have been occurring sporadically since the 11th century in Catholic churches around the world. This article summarizes some of the most notable Catholic sexual abuse cases in Canadian provinces.

Settlements and bankruptcies in Catholic sex abuse cases have affected several American dioceses, whose compensation payments have totaled in the billions of dollars.

The parish transfers of abusive Catholic priests, also known as priest shuffling, is a pastoral practice that has greatly contributed to the aggravation of Catholic Church sexual abuse cases. Some bishops have been heavily criticized for moving offending priests from parish to parish, where they still had personal contact with children, rather than seeking to have them permanently returned to the lay state by laicization. The Church was widely criticized when it was discovered that some bishops knew about some of the alleged crimes committed, but reassigned the accused instead of seeking to have them permanently removed from the priesthood.

The sexual abuse scandal in Hartford archdiocese is an episode in the series of Catholic sex abuse cases in the United States.

The Society of Jesus has had different episodes of Catholic sex abuse cases in various jurisdictions.

Jeffrey Marc "Jeff" Herman is an American trial lawyer who specializes in representing victims of sexual abuse, and has been described as a "[t]op church sex abuse attorney". He is the founding and managing partner of the South Florida-based firm Herman Law, and has been described in the media as "the nation's leading attorney when it comes to handling high-profile sexual abuse lawsuits".

<i>Spotlight</i> (film) 2015 film directed by Tom McCarthy

Spotlight is a 2015 American biographical drama film directed by Tom McCarthy and written by McCarthy and Josh Singer. The film follows The Boston Globe's "Spotlight" team, the oldest continuously operating newspaper investigative journalist unit in the United States, and its investigation into cases of widespread and systemic child sex abuse in the Boston area by numerous Catholic priests. Although the plot was original, it is loosely based on a series of stories by the Spotlight team that earned The Globe the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. The film features an ensemble cast including Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, John Slattery, and Stanley Tucci, with Brian d'Arcy James, Liev Schreiber, and Billy Crudup in supporting roles.

James Talbot, SJ is a former American Jesuit priest, teacher, and coach who was convicted of raping multiple students over a period of several decades.

Phillip James Saviano was an American advocate for survivors of Catholic church sexual abuse. As a youth, Saviano was abused by a priest in the early 1960s. Thirty years later, after reading about the priest abusing other youths in another state, Saviano went public, becoming one of the earliest survivors of church sexual abuse to do so. He brought a lawsuit against his local diocese, uncovering evidence of additional abuse. Eventually, his investigation led to The Boston Globe publishing a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles exposing the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston sex abuse scandal, which was dramatized in the 2015 Academy Award-winning film Spotlight.

References

  1. ↑ "REEL V/S REAL". Grassroots Journalis. 11 March 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  2. ↑ "Boston Attorney Represents Victim In Jerry Sandusky Case". 9 October 2012.
  3. 1 2 "Boston Globe / Spotlight / Abuse in the Catholic Church / The victims". archive.boston.com.
  4. ↑ "Ex-Statehouse aide drops sexual-assault suit against Rosenberg and Hefner". Greenfield Recorder. 19 October 2018.
  5. ↑ "Spotlight on 'Spotlight': Two Armenians Who Took On the Catholic Church". The Armenian Weekly. 2015-12-03. Retrieved 2018-07-09.
  6. ↑ "Irish priest in New York to be defrocked over 30-year-old sex abuse allegations". 28 September 2016.
  7. ↑ Fortier, Marc (November 7, 2017). "Ex-Boston News Anchor Says Family Member Was Sexually Abused by Kevin Spacey". NECN. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
  8. ↑ Vries, Lloyd (March 11, 2002). "Church Sex Suit Settlement Reported". CBS News. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
  9. ↑ "Boston Globe / Spotlight / Abuse in the Catholic Church / The Geoghan case". archive.boston.com. Retrieved Apr 26, 2021.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.