June 4, 2002

Lawyer: Diocese not liable for abuse

By Kathleen A. Shaw, Telegram & Gazette Staff

WORCESTER -- A lawyer for the Catholic Diocese of Worcester, responding to a class-action civil suit filed by two alleged victims of the Rev. Robert E. Kelley, said the diocese is not to blame.

Damages to the plaintiffs ``were caused in whole or in part or were contributed to by the negligence, act or failure to act of the plaintiffs'' and they cannot recover damages, Joanne L. Goulka, who is representing the diocese in the suit, said in a filing with the court. The class-action suit initially was filed on May 20 in Worcester Superior Court on behalf of Karen A. Pedersen of Fitchburg and unnamed others who may have been sexually molested by Rev. Kelley. The suit maintains Ms. Pedersen was abused by the priest when she was 8 and he was assigned to a parish in Lunenburg.

The suit later was amended to include Claire Baillargeon Groccia, who said she was abused when she was 6 by Rev. Kelley, who was assigned to a parish in Southbridge at the time.

Rev. Kelley has not served as a priest since 1986, but has not been defrocked. He currently is facing criminal charges of child rape in connection with alleged abuse of another woman.

Ms. Goulka, of the Stoneham law firm of Griffin & Goulka, said the diocese does not have enough information to admit or deny most of the allegations made in the class-action suit. She said she does not believe a class-action suit is warranted.

The diocese's position, she added, is that any injuries to the two women were caused by someone other than the diocese, which is not legally responsible.

``Any wrongful conduct committed by the defendant, Robert E. Kelley, was undertaken outside the course and scope of any relationship he may have had with the defendant,'' according to the diocese's response to the suit.