St. Francis Prep Community, Here is More Information on Brother Dominic Quigley, Brother Ben O'Reilly, and Brother DeSales Pergola

Update 10/1/2014: Brother Dominic Quigley Removed from American Martyrs Parish

Some of you may be aware at this point that former St. Francis Prep teacher Brother Dominic Quigley was at least temporarily removed from his duties as Sacristan at American Martyrs Church this past weekend because of the child sexual abuse investigation we initiated with the Diocese of Brooklyn. Thank God for that! It was a long time coming, as you're about to see.

A very distinguished classmate of mine named John Cardillo from the Class of 1987 read the last blog I wrote, after I posted it on the Class of 1987 group page on Facebook. John has been featured on The Blaze with Glenn Beck, and he owns his own company which, among other things, tracks pedophiles for companies that cater to children, such as Disney. He is also a political analyst and commentator.

John and I had not spoken in 27 years. He reached out to me and had a lot to say about the three men mentioned in the title of this blog. He also wants you to know that he will help me any way that he can and he is sickened by what has transpired at St. Francis Prep.

In John's own words:

"So here are the incidents I recall. Too many to count with Br. Dom. Initially, he was verbally inappropriate with me. He invited me after hours to his residence upstairs multiple times, and I refused. Finally I told him that I told my mother and that we were both uncomfortable. It stopped soon thereafter.

Once, when he (Br. Dom) came back from vacation, I was coming in from track practice. It was just him, me, and another guy (I forget who). He hugged me very long and inappropriately. Too tight and close. I was taken off guard, so I told both Mr. Abruzzo (Dean of Men) and Len Antinori (Cor Teacher) and both laughed it off and told me I was making too much of it. When I persisted, Abruzzo actually took me seriously. He basically said that I should stay away from Br. Dom and report anything inappropriate in writing, with a copy kept by my parents. Antinori, however, told me to stop being a trouble maker and really gave me a hard time.

Br. Ben O'Reilly should never have been working around kids. I witnessed his verbal and physical (non sexual) abuse too many times to count. He threatened me on more than one occasion because I commented on his lewd comments to female students. The nature of the threats was bizarre. I recall his face turning red and him describing, in specific detail, how he wanted to strangle me until I died and the pleasure he would take in watching the life drain from me. Now color me reactionary, but I found that an odd way to speak to a 16 year old.

I never had much interaction with Br. DeSales. But I remember him making lewd comments about penis size to me and other guys, and slapping guys across the butt with the cord around his habit (whatever that thing is called)."

Please note that John is not the gentleman I mentioned in the previous blog, from the Class of 1989, who also came forward with information about Brs. Dom and DeSales.  John Cardillo and I graduated in 1987, so these incidents took place prior to June, 1987. By the way, the current investigation regarding Br. Dom revolves around alleged misconduct in 2003.

Felicia Mooradian's problems with Br. Ben occurred in 2006. In the school's defamation lawsuit against her, one of SFP's allegations (which Felicia says is about Br. Ben) is as follows:

"Defendant (Felicia) falsely states that "she was sexually harassed and terrorized" by a former teacher of St. Francis Preparatory. Defendant then states that Defendant had to endure bullying as a result of that same teacher being removed from teaching."

So it seems SFP is saying Felicia lied when she said Br. Ben sexually harassed and terrorized her, and that he subsequently bullied her after he was removed from teaching.

Maybe St. Francis Prep needs to talk to John Cardillo about what kind of man Br. Ben is. Otherwise, they can hear it from him on the witness stand.