A lawsuit alleging that St. Mary’s College Preparatory High School in Manhasset and the religious order operating it knowingly hired a faculty member with a history of sexually abusing other students has dropped the school as a defendant, court papers show.
Steven Gormley, 53, of Connecticut, was a resident of Long Beach when he entered the then-St. Mary’s High School for Boys, operated by the Marist Brothers religious order, as a freshman in 1981, according to a complaint filed under the Child Victims Act in Nassau County Supreme Court in March, and claims to have been sexually abused an estimated 75 times by Brother Robert Ryan, a guidance counselor at the school who died in 2017.
While Gormley agreed to settlements with the Marist Brothers twice in the years since his graduation, he said in March court papers that he was prompted to formally sue the order and the school when it was discovered that Ryan had abused students at Marist High School in Eugene, Oregon, and at Marist High School in Chicago, both run by the order, throughout the 1970s before arriving at St. Mary’s.
The alumnus also claims that he had been intimidated into taking the settlements under threat that the school would tell his mother about the incidents and take away a scholarship from a family friend, and was intoxicated while signing them, which he says was a result of alcoholism prompted by the abuse.
Now, in court papers filed in early May, St. Mary’s has been removed as a defendant, which came following the school filing for a stay of the case as a result of the Diocese of Rockville Centre’s filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the year after enactment of the Child Victims Act. The Marist Brothers remain the sole defendant in the case.
In court papers filed April 27, attorneys for the school attest that as a result of filing for Chapter 11 protection on Oct. 1, 2020, the diocese petitioned for and received a preliminary injunction to stay Child Victims Act lawsuits, first received Jan. 22. The “stipulation and order,” as it was called, stayed further proceedings until March 31, and a subsequent extension extended the stay of lawsuits until June 14.
Gormley then discontinued legal action against St. Mary’s without prejudice in a court document dated May 7. The action allows him to take legal action against the school on the same grounds in the future.
Attorney Kevin Mulhearn of upstate Orangeburg, who represents Gormley, confirmed the removal of the school as a defendant in the case during a phone call, but declined to comment further.
Attorney Brian R. Davey of Williston Park, who represented St. Mary’s in the case, deferred comment to the Diocese of Rockville Centre. Efforts to reach its office of communications were unavailing.
Efforts to reach the Marist order for comment were also unavailing.
