December 11, 2009
Woman Files Suit Against Priest and Roman Catholic Church
FAIR LAWN, NJ -- A 73-year-old Fair Lawn woman has filed a lawsuit against St. Anne’s Roman Catholic Church and the Archdiocese of Newark citing damages as a result of an alleged sexual assault that occurred at St. Anne’s on Nov. 15, 2007. The woman asserts in her lawsuit that she has suffered spiritual, physical and emotional damages as well as embarrassment and humiliation as a result of coming forward and claiming that 39-year-old Rev. Edson Fernando Costa, the assistant pastor at St. Anne’s at the time, sexually assaulted her. Rev. John C. Doyle, the Pastor of St. Anne’s, and Archbishop John J. Myers were named in the complaint. Costa, who is also named in the complaint, forced the woman, who was 72 at the time of the incident, to touch him inappropriately in a secluded hallway in the upper level of the church according to the suit.Click Here For The Full Story......