Diocese of Paterson, Bayley Ellard High School and Religious Order Sued Under New Victim’s Rights Bill In New Jersey

• Reveal and discuss a lawsuit filed under New Jersey’s new Victim’s Rights Bill by a survivor who was sexually abused as a minor by Fr. James T. Hanley and Fr. Thomas G. Rainforth at St. Joseph’s parish in Mendham, New Jersey from approximately 1974-1977, and by Fr. John Pisarcik at Bayley Ellard High School in Madison, New Jersey, and St. Francis Health Resort in Denville, New Jersey. Pisarcik sexually abused the Plaintiff from approximately 1978-1990, when Plaintiff was approximately 15-27 years old;
• Reveal and discuss that Pisarcik was arrested in 1991 while still a priest and charged with sexually assaulting boys. Pisarcik pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years at a treatment center. He was removed from ministry in 1991. His whereabouts are unknown;
• Reveal and discuss that in approximately 1985, the Diocese of Paterson is believed to have received a report that Hanley sexually abused a boy while he was at St. Joseph’s, where he was a priest from 1973-1982. The Diocese reportedly removed Hanley from ministry but did not inform law enforcement. Hanley was laicized in 2003. He admitted in a sworn statement that he sexually abused 21 boys from 1968-1982, many of them from Mendham and Morris County, New Jersey. Hanley’s whereabouts are unknown;
• Reveal and discuss that Rainforth was previously alleged to have sexually abused a boy in 1975 while he was a priest at St. Joseph’s. Rainforth died in 2019;
• The lawsuit includes claims of negligence against the Diocese of Paterson, St. Joseph’s, Bayley Ellard, St. Francis Health Resort and the Sisters of Sorrowful Mother religious order, which owned and operated St. Francis Health resort;
• Demand that Bishop Arthur Serratelli of the Diocese of Paterson fully disclose the identities, histories, and current whereabouts of all clergy accused of child sexual abuse who worked in the Diocese of Paterson, including the whereabouts of Pisarcik and Hanley;
• Discuss New Jersey’s historic Victim’s Rights Bill, a new law that extends the statute of limitations and provides a two-year window for sexual abuse survivors to bring lawsuits in cases that were previously barred by the statute of limitations, no matter when the abuse occurred or how old the survivor is;
• Encourage sexual abuse survivors to come forward confidentially under the Victim’s Rights Bill.

When:
Wednesday, December 4, 2019 at 10:00 AM (ET)

Where:
Marriott Saddle Brook
Bergen Room
138 New Pehle Avenue
Saddle Brook, NJ  07663

The press conference will be live-streamed via YouTube and on Facebook

In May 2019, Jeff Anderson & Associates released The Anderson Report: Sexual Abuse in the Archdiocese and Dioceses in New Jersey, which contains the names, photographs, and assignment histories of approximately 300 clergy members accused of child sexual abuse. In addition, Jeff Anderson & Associates released The Anderson List: Sexual Abuse in the Boy Scouts of America (New Jersey), which provides names and locations of Boy Scout perpetrators in New Jersey.

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