Former Girard priest is sued

The plaintiff says he was molested as a 12-year-old at St. Rose Church in Girard.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A former Youngstown area priest is named in a lawsuit alleging he sexually molested a young boy 23 years ago.
The suit was filed Thursday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court against Robert Burns, St. Rose Church of Girard, the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown, Bishop Thomas Tobin and his predecessors, and the Catholic Church.
It seeks unspecified damages on behalf of a plaintiff identified only as John Doe 64.
The suit, assigned to Judge Jack Durkin, says only that the plaintiff is an adult male who lives in Ohio. His identity was revealed to the defendants in a separate cover letter, the suit says.
Neither Atty. Michael Marando of Youngstown, who filed the suit, nor diocesan chancellor Nancy Yuhasz could be reached to comment.
Term in diocese
According to Vindicator files, Burns worked in the local diocese from 1975 to 1981, when a sexual abuse complaint from a young boy prompted his removal from St. Rose.
He had worked at parishes in the Youngstown area and in North Canton.
The suit says that beginning in 1979, when the plaintiff was about 12 years old, Burns began having illegal and unwanted sexual contact with him at St. Rose Church.
The plaintiff, a former altar boy who was reared in a "devout Roman Catholic family," came to know Burns as his "priest, counselor and spiritual adviser," the suit says.
The abuse, and the circumstances under which it occurred, caused the plaintiff to "develop confusion and symptoms of psychological disorders, including great shame, guilt, self-blame, depression, repression and disassociation," the suit says.
It says Burns had a history of sexually abusing young boys throughout his tenure as a priest, including assignments at a North Canton church in 1975 and while on the faculty of St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Louisville, Ohio, in 1979.
Went to Boston
He eventually ended up in Boston, where he is believed to have sexually abused six boys, the lawsuit says.
In 1996, Burns was sentenced to prison in New Hampshire after pleading guilty to two counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault on a child.
Marando says in the suit that rather than admit and address Burns' abuses, the church concealed the acts and failed to report them to proper authorities as required by law.
That pattern of activity is a violation of Ohio's Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act, the suit says.
bjackson@vindy.com