Judge denies motion to delay civil lawsuit

By Kevin Luperchio

Worcester Superior Court Judge Leila Kern denied a motion yesterday to continue indefinitely a civil suit against Bishop Rueger and the Diocese of Worcester.

Mr. Braio, 52, filed the suit last July alleging that Bishop Rueger began sexually molested him when Mr. Braio was an altar boy at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Worcester and that the diocese knowingly concealed information about the assaults. Bishop Rueger has denied the accusations.

Daniel Shea, a Houston-based lawyer representing Sime Braio, filed an emergency motion in Superior Court on July 21 citing a rule in the state’s canon of ethics for lawyers. The rule addresses situations in which a client is incompetent or unable to maintain a normal lawyer-client relationship, according to James G. Reardon, diocesan lawyer.

Mr. Reardon said he filed an opposition to the motion Monday on the grounds that Mr. Shea did not provide any evidence to support his motion that Mr. Braio is either incompetent or lacking the capacity to maintain a lawyer-client relationship.

“It’s difficult to even know what his contention is (based on the motion),” Mr. Reardon said.

Mr. Shea declined to comment.

In his motion, he said that “matters of a confidential nature have arisen that mandate immediate and emergent action.”
“The plaintiff’s ‘verified’ motion cites no case law and provides no facts which may be verified by the court or the defendants,” Mr. Reardon said in his opposition.

In other words, Mr. Reardon said in a telephone interview Tuesday, Mr. Shea “has not done what he is supposed to do. He hasn’t offered any evidence to support his claim.”

By law, he said, a pleading based on subjective characterization or unsubstantiated conclusions are not sufficient for a continuance.

Two other rulings in matters related to the suit are still pending. The first is in regard to Mr. Reardon’s request that the diocese be removed from the suit altogether.

In a hearing last month, Mr. Reardon argued that the diocese should be exempt from the lawsuit under a Massachusetts common law which grants charitable organizations immunity from liability in civil lawsuits.

He also argued that the diocese could not have knowingly concealed information pertaining to the alleged assaults since, by Mr. Braio’s own admission, it did not know of the assaults before 2001. In the original complaint, Mr. Braio said informed the diocese about the alleged assaults in 2001.

The second ruling is in regards to the diocese request to depose a Telegram and Gazette reporter believed to have information regarding the case.

Kathleen Shaw, a religion beat reporter with the paper, interviewed Mr. Braio about his allegations against Bishop Rueger in February 2002, according to a July 12th article in the Telegram and Gazette.

In a hearing last November, Mr. Reardon said Ms. Shaw’s testimony is pertinent because it could corroborate the testimony of Msgr. Thomas J. Sullivan, the diocesan official with whom Mr. Braio spoke about his alleged abuse in Feb. 2002.

Msgr. Sullivan, diocesan chancellor, has testified in a deposition that Mr. Braio threatened to go to the press if the diocese did not pay him $10,000. Msgr. Sullivan said he refused the offer on several occasions and also informed the Worcester District Attorney’s office.

Lawyers for the Telegram and Gazette argued that Ms. Shaw’s conversations with Mr. Braio are constitutionally protected as confidential.

On July 18, Mr. Braio dropped First Assistant District Attorney James Reagon from a second civil suit he’d filed the week before.

The suit, which names Msgr. Sullivan as a co-defendant, alleges that Mr. Reagon told Msgr. Sullivan that Mr. Braio was HIV-positive during a conversation that took place after Mr. Braio went to the Worcester District Attorney’s office with his abuse allegation against Bishop Rueger.

Mr. Braio has since been tested for HIV; the results were negative.

Mr. Shea was quoted in a July 19th article in the Worcester Telegram and Gazette as saying he was unaware of his client’s decision to drop Mr. Reagon from the suit.

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