CLICK FOR ‘HIDDEN DISGRACE’

Report Includes

All Allegations,

Some Unproved

Probes Exonerated Bishop, Priest

By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

ALBANY – Of the two priests with Otsego County ties named in “Hidden Disgrace III,” one pleaded guilty to sodomy, but the second was investigated twice and exonerated.

The report, prepared by Lawyers Helping Survivors of Child Sex Abuse and released today, appears to be a compilation of all allegations, whether or not they were proved.

For instance, retired Bishop Howard Hubbard is among the 42 priests listed.  In 2004, allegations surfaced that the bishop vehemently denied.  The diocese hired an outside law firm to investigate, and it found no “credible evidence” against him.

Of the two cases involving priests who served in Otsego County, Father Carl Stone, who served in Edmeston and Laurens, pleaded guilty to sodomy in 1981 in a case involving sex with two brothers in Colonie, was placed on leave and received probation, the report said.  He died in 2006.

Father Louis E. Douglas, who served at one point in Oneonta, was accused of making “improper sexual advances” toward a male teen in the 1970 while at St. Margaret of Cortona and in a second case at St. Catherine of Siena “and in Delaware.”

In the Douglas case, however, a diocesan investigation concluded “no abuse had occurred either time,” according to the “Hidden Disgrace” report.  He died in 2001.

“Hidden Disgrace III” was created from media reports and online sources, including bishopaccountability.org, a website that tracks sex abuse in the Catholic Church, according to a press release accompanying its release.

Lawyers Helping Survivors has released two other reports listing sexual abuse allegations, covering those in the Brooklyn and Rockville Centre dioceses. Survivors that are interested in learning more about priests in these areas can visit www.childsexabuse.org.