Wednesday, September 25, 2002
By Kathleen A. Shaw
Telegram & Gazette Staff
WORCESTER-- A sworn deposition given earlier this month disputes
assertions by Catholic Diocese of Worcester officials that Sime Braio attempted
to extort money from the diocese before he filed a lawsuit accusing Auxiliary
Bishop George E. Rueger of sexual abuse.
Mr. Braio, 52, filed the civil suit in July against the diocese and Bishop
Rueger, alleging that Rev. Rueger, who was then a priest, sexually molested Mr.
Braio when he was a teenager.
Glen G. Alexander, who rents an apartment from Mr. Braio, gave a deposition
on Sept. 10; he was questioned by ........, Mr. Braio's lawyer, and James
G. Reardon Jr., lawyer for the diocese.
Mr. Alexander said he was with Mr. Braio when Mr. Braio called the chancery
on Feb. 26 to report he had been abused by Bishop Rueger. Mr. Alexander also
said he was in Mr. Braio's apartment on May 10 when Monsignor Thomas J.
Sullivan, the diocesan chancellor, arrived there with a black bag.
The conversation he heard, Mr. Alexander said, made it appear that the
diocese was more interested in protecting the auxiliary bishop from public
exposure than in helping Mr. Braio.
He said he also was present on May 16 when state police assigned to the
Worcester District Attorney's office escorted Mr. Braio from his home for a
questioning session that lasted 10 hours.
Mr. Alexander said that over a two-year period Mr. Braio had told him about
how, years ago, then-Rev. Rueger would sign him out of the former Lyman School,
a state-operated facility for juvenile delinquents, and take him to a house in
Scituate. Mr. Alexander said he was not aware of Mr. Braio's allegations of
sexual abuse until he overheard a telephone call the plaintiff made to the
chancery.
Asked about his relationship with Mr. Braio, he responded, “Picture two old
handicapped guys. They would hang out ... 24-7 if given the opportunity, because
they're lonely, right, but they also understand that a person needs their
privacy.”
The diocese maintained that Mr. Braio called the chancery on Feb. 26 and
attempted to “extort the Diocese of Worcester with false claims of sexual
misconduct against Bishop Rueger.”
“I happen to have been sitting right in front of him when he made that
phone call,” Mr. Alexander stated in his deposition. He said Mr. Braio first
talked with the Rev. Rocco Piccolomini and “laid open his heart and soul to this
priest,” telling Rev. Piccolomini that he had been sexually molested and
sodomized by Bishop Rueger.
Asked how he knew who Mr. Braio was speaking with, Mr. Alexander responded
that “one of Sime's characteristics is anytime he talks on the phone or reads a
newspaper or anything like that, he tends to say what he's doing out loud.”
He also said that it appeared to him that Mr. Braio carried strong feelings
of guilt about his past relationship with Bishop Rueger. “I stayed put because I
was afraid he was going to have a heart attack, because I've never seen a person
so broken up in my entire life,” Mr. Alexander said.
Mr. Alexander said that he heard Mr. Braio say, “This is not about money.”
During the deposition, Mr. Reardon, the diocesan lawyer, asked what Mr.
Alexander had been told about the alleged sexual molestation.
“Well, he went so far to say that he was taken out of the school and
brought to a place called Scituate, I believe, which I believe he referred to as
this bishop's parents home,” Mr. Alexander said.
Rev. Piccolomini, according to the witness, asked Mr. Braio to consider the
harm that would be done to the bishop by going public with the allegations.
When the telephone was passed to Monsignor Sullivan, Mr. Alexander said it
appeared the chancellor did not want to hear about the alleged abuse and “that
it was time to figure out how to sweep this gently away.”
He said there was a noticeable change in the tone of conversation when Mr.
Braio started talking to Monsignor Sullivan. He said it sounded as though
Monsignor Sullivan was attempting to make him feel guilty “about even coming out
against someone so renowned and so wonderful as this bishop,'' he said.
Mr. Alexander said he became “very suspicious” of the two priests Mr. Braio
was talking to and advised him to speak to a lawyer.
Mr. Braio's conversations with the two hit Mr. Alexander “like a bolt of
lightning,” he testified.
“I was under the impression for quite some time Bishop Rueger was almost a
God to Sime,” Mr. Alexander said. He said he had talked with Mr. Braio about
Bishop Rueger prior to Feb. 26 and that Mr. Braio never discussed the subject of
sexual abuse.
Responding to a question from Mr. Reardon, Mr. Alexander said that he
believed Mr. Braio loved Bishop Rueger.
“I really ... I've never heard anyone talk about someone like that,” he
testified. “It's almost like a brain washing. I mean, I don't tell my children I
love them as much as he indicated, and I love my children.''
Mr. Alexander said he was in Mr. Braioi's apartment on May 10 when a man he
took to be Monsignor Sullivan arrived there.
A press release put out by the diocese in response to Mr. Braio's lawsuit
stated that Monsignor Sullivan went to the home to “reach out to a possible
victim.”
Mr. Alexander testified that he overheard the conversation between the
monsignor and Mr. Braio. He said he assumed the priest was “coming over finally
to take a confession or listen to my friend and his problems with the past with
this bishop, and to try to just rid of him some of his pain.”
Mr. ......asked Mr. Alexander to characterize the meeting.
“I believe that this individual, Monsignor Sullivan, came over to give him
some money to ease his pain. That's what I believe in my heart,” he said. Asked
if he heard any specific amounts, Mr. Alexander said he recalls hearing $1,000,
but that the amount could have been $10,000.
Mr. Braio maintains in his lawsuit that Monsignor Sullivan offered him
$10,000 in exchange for his silence.
At the deposition, Mr. Shea read a paragraph from the diocesan press
release that stated no money was offered to Mr. Braio at the meeting with the
monsignor.
“I don't believe that,” Mr. Alexander responded.
“How would you characterize that statement then?” he was asked. “I think
it's a lie,” he said.
Mr. Alexander said the stress brought on by the lawsuit and subsequent
events have extracted a high toll from Mr. Braio.
He said the plaintiff twice made suicide attempts in his presence, once
“practically right in front of me.”
Mr. Alexander said he believes the suicide attempts were made because Mr.
Braio “feels dirty inside.'
“They're machine-gunning me,” Mr. Alexander recalled Mr. Braio telling him.
Mr. Alexander said he was also in Mr. Braio's apartment on May 16, the day
that state police officers came to pick up Mr. Braio for questioning regarding
his allegations against Bishop Rueger. He said Mr. Braio appeared nervous but
the state police officers were cordial and not threatening in any way.
Mr. ..... asked about how Mr. Braio was when he was returned.
“He was a mess,” Mr. Alexander said. “He was distraught, to say the least
-- anxious, worn out. ... didn't look good.
“It's not good for his health to be doing this,” Mr. Alexander testified.