Today Judge Sterling Johnson announced his decision in the original three lawsuits filed in June, 2013 by Felicia Mooradian, Mark Evangelista, and me.
Regarding Felicia's and Mark's lawsuits, the Judge said St. Francis Prep does not receive any federal funding and so these cannot be federal lawsuits. They have 30 days to re-file in state court, and Attorney Kevin Mulhearn will be doing that.
Regarding my defamation lawsuit against the school, Judge Johnson stated that Br. Leonard's statement in the letter the school had sent out in Jan. 2013 implying that the purpose of my blogs "is to bully, convey hatred, or to spread malicious lies and unsubstantiated rumors" was a statement of opinion by Br. Leonard, and statements of opinion are not defamatory. Therefore, he granted the school's motion to dismiss my case.
I will be appealing this decision. I would also like to add that no one has ever sued me about a single thing I have said. In fact, the statute of limitations has already run out on anyone suing me regarding the most inflammatory blogs I've written.
I also want everyone to know that I am going to keep doing what I am doing. I am going to blog, and I am going to keep my website up, and I am going to keep investigating what people tell me. This is why: two men contacted me recently about what they are alleging are their experiences of sexual abuse at the hands of two Franciscan Brothers when they were students at St. Francis Prep. Each man alleges that the abuse occurred on several occasions with his respective abuser. One of these Brothers is deceased, and the other is alive and well, working at Franciscan educational institutions, and a parish near the school. I promptly put these men in contact with Attorney Kevin Mulhearn, and we all will be hearing more about their allegations in the coming weeks. I will tell you this for now - the deceased Brother in question is Brother DeSales Pergola - and this is the second complaint I've received about him.
I would like to leave you with this post made on my website recently by a gentleman who graduated in the Class of 1974, and who now is a college professor:
"I was in the graduating class of 1974, the last Brooklyn class. I thought when females were students things would improve. How wrong I was. In Brooklyn there was brutality, harassment of all kinds, homophobia, drug selling and abuse and more. Much from the students but if you were an athlete you had free rein. I tell stories and people think I'm making it up. You can't make this stuff up. I was personally threatened with beatings from brothers but let it be known there would be payback so they left me alone. But above all they protected the brand and acted as if they were good Christians. True, there were good people but they were overwhelmed by the bad. It all changed when a student decked a teacher however. Like all bullies they backed away. Keep fighting, the best way to get rid of roaches is to turn the light on. The people trying to improve the situation are the good guys."
That really sums it up nicely. We'll have more information for you soon.
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