Ex-deacon George Brignac, who was accused decades ago of raping an altar boy at the Holy Rosary School in a case that led to
a more than $500,000 settlement from the Archdiocese of New Orleans, has been named in another lawsuit filed Monday (Oct. 29) that alleges he sexually molested another altar boy at the same school between 1977 and 1982.
The 17-page suit, filed in Orleans Parish Civil District Court, claims that Brignac sexually assaulted the unnamed plaintiff, who was between the ages of eight and 13 when the instances occurred, on multiple occasions while teaching at the Holy Rosary School in New Orleans.
The suit says Brignac began at the school on Esplanade Avenue in New Orleans after being acquitted on charges in Jefferson Parish that he abused a child at St. Matthew School in River Ridge. The Archdiocese paid out more than half a million dollars May 11 to settle a lawsuit in connection with the St. Matthew incident in the 1970s and ’80s, a settlement first reported by the New Orleans Advocate.
The lawsuit argues “the Archdiocese took no steps to protect the children” at either school. The New Orleans Police Department
is now investigating the Holy Rosary allegations of the other former altar boy.
In interviews with The Advocate, Brignac, now 83, did not deny touching children but said his actions had “no sexual motive.”
A spokesperson said Monday the archdiocese had not yet been served with the lawsuit.
Brignac met the plaintiff in Monday’s suit in 1977, when the boy was in third grade and serving as an altar boy. According to the lawsuit, Brignac immediately began “grooming” the boy for further abuse by “hugging and kissing him on the head, face and lips.” John Doe’s father abandoned his family a year later and the lawsuit alleges Brignac “used this vacancy to take full advantage of John Doe’s vulnerability.” Brignac then began fondling John Doe under his cassock as they were alone and preparing for morning Mass, according to the lawsuit.
Countless acts of abuse followed, including one that occurred in 1981 when Brignac took a group of altar boys to a local water park. When dropping off the plaintiff at his home, Brignac parked in from of the house, pulled down the boy’s swimming trunks and assaulted him, the lawsuit says.
Brignac warned the boy that he would get in trouble if he reported the inappropriate behavior, the suit says. The boy remained silent for years “out of fear and embarrassment,” according to the suit.
Attorneys Benjamin Sanders, Matthew Fransen, John Denenea and Richard Trahant make up the plaintiff’s legal team.
The plaintiff argues that the church treated claims against Brignac with negligence and fraudulence and granted him a “favored position” despite the allegations because his twin brother is a longtime priest assigned to several parishes within the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
The plaintiff also contends he is owed an unspecified amount of damages from Brignac and the archdiocese, saying the abuse caused “severe and permanent emotional distress, nervousness and anxiety, sleeplessness, depression, crying spells” and suicidal thoughts.
Louisiana’s statutes of limitation for civil child sexual abuse cases could prevent the plaintiff from seeking damages for actions dating back decades. But attorneys could argue that the limitations do not apply if there were recent efforts to cover up actions prompting lawsuits.
