Suit claims ex-pastor testified falsely about abuse reports

By By Andrew Wolfson

August 30, 2002 - A lawsuit filed in Jefferson Circuit Court yesterday alleges that the former pastor of St. Rita Catholic Church testified falsely in a July deposition when he claimed that only one parent ever reported to him that the Rev. Daniel C. Clark had molested his child.

Brian Weatherbee alleges that he and his mother, Harriette Weatherbee, both told the Rev. Vincent Schweizer in 1981 that Clark had fondled Brian, then 13, after asking the boy to help Clark move some furniture in his apartment at the St. Rita rectory.

Brian Weatherbee, now 34, said he decided to come forward after reading a news story about Schweizer's July 26 deposition in which he testified under oath that the father of another boy was the only person who complained about Clark.

Schweizer said in the sworn statement that he didn't think Clark would abuse children again because ''only one time did someone come to me and state that something improper had happened . . . and you know, one case of abuse in my mind does not equal pedophilia.''

Weatherbee's suit says he ''immediately knew this testimony to be false, misleading, deceptive and calculated to hide the truth from the attorneys representing numerous other victims of Clark from St. Rita.''

Weatherbee's complaint -- the 15th to accuse Clark of sexual abuse and the 184th filed since April against the Archdiocese of Louisville -- said Schweizer's testimony is part of ''a continuing act of conspiracy, fraud, deception and misrepresentation perpetrated by the church over the past 40 years . . . to avoid legal responsibility for knowingly placing children of the church in harm's way.'' The suit offers no documentation to support those accusations.

Brian Reynolds, chancellor and chief administrative officer for the archdiocese, said it does not comment on active litigation. Schweizer, who is retired, said yesterday that he didn't have time for questions because he had to celebrate Mass at a hospital. Clark, who is being held in the Bullitt County jail in an unrelated child sexual abuse case, could not be reached for comment. Clark's lawyer, David Lambertus, said he had no comment.

In an interview, Weatherbee and his mother, who is not a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said they knew Schweizer's testimony was false because Weatherbee was molested before the boy whom Schweizer was asked about in his deposition.

Harriette Weatherbee said she knows the incident occurred in late June 1981 because she saves her calendars and the one from that year documents a meeting with ''Fr. Dan'' on July 3. She said she met with Clark and Schweizer that day. Ann Oldfather, one of Weatherbee's lawyers, provided a copy of the calendar to the newspaper.

The boy whom Schweizer was asked about in his deposition was allegedly molested in early 1982. He hasn't filed a lawsuit and hasn't been publicly identified.

WEATHERBEE, WHO had just graduated from the school at St. Rita, said in the interview he was riding his bike across the parking lot when Clark came out and asked for his help.

Weatherbee said they were moving a dresser when a vase on it fell to the floor and broke. Weatherbee said Clark was trying to pick up the pieces when Clark approached him from behind and fondled him.

The suit says the boy immediately reported the incident to his mother, and each of them met separately with Schweizer, whom they say promised to report the matter to the archdiocese.

In interviews, Weatherbee said Schweizer -- a longtime family friend -- indicated he would take care of the problem.

Weatherbee's mother said that during her meeting with Clark, he admitted what had happened and apologized for it. She said Clark assured him that it was a ''one-time thing'' -- that he was distraught over the recent death of his grandmother, who had given him the vase, and that he didn't know what came over him.

Despite knowing that Weatherbee had been molested by his associate pastor, the suit contends, Schweizer and the Catholic Church ''failed to take any action to report the abuse to police; failed to remove Clark from the service of the church; and failed to warn other members of the parish.''

That in turn ''resulted in the sexual molestation and abuse of numerous children after the summer of 1981,'' according to the lawsuit, which was filed by Oldfather, William McMurry and other lawyers.

Clark worked for another year at St. Rita before Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly transferred him to St. Dominic parish in Springfield, the first of five posts he held over the next six years.

In 1988, Clark was convicted of sexually abusing two other students at St. Rita and permanently removed from public ministry. But lawsuits filed since April in Jefferson County claim that by 1988 he had molested 14 children in three parishes, including a dozen at St. Rita.

''I did what I should have done and reported this, and it turns out they did nothing,'' said Weatherbee, who works as a quality technician at a small-motor plant in Bardstown.

He said he never would have filed suit if not for Schweizer's testimony.

''I knew it was bull,'' Weatherbee said in an interview. ''He knew this was at least the second incident. I felt I had been betrayed. It ripped open a scar.''

IN THE OTHER case that Schweizer was questioned about in his deposition, he said the father of a Holy Spirit student reported that Clark had molested his son on an overnight trip.

Schweizer acknowledged that he never reported the allegation to the archdiocese and never told the principal or teachers at St. Rita about it. Schweizer said he later took it on Clark's word that the archdiocese had ordered him to undergo counseling.

Schweizer said the only changes he made at St. Rita based on the boy's allegations were banning Clark from using Schweizer's fishing cabin on Nolin Lake, where the abuse allegedly occurred, and prohibiting Clark and another associate pastor from taking children into their living quarters at the rectory.

Clark served three months in jail and was placed on 15 years' probation for his 1988 convictions. He was indicted Wednesday by a Bullitt County grand jury on four felony charges of sexually abusing two young boys.

Shepherdsville police, who investigated the case, said Clark allegedly abused two brothers, ages 11 and 12, on numerous occasions between 1998 and May of this year while he was visiting their family.

Clark has pleaded innocent to the charges and is being held in the Bullitt County Detention Center on a $500,000 cash bond.