By Hector Flores
The youth minister, Matthew Maiello, then of Lynbrook, pleaded guilty in 2003 to rape and sodomy of the two plaintiffs, a man and a women who were 15 when the assaults began. For his crimes, Maiello was sentenced to prison for over two years. He now lives in Connecticut.
Maiello¹s victims believed that the punishment was too lenient and decided to sue him, St. Raphael¹s, the Rev. Thomas Haggerty, the priest who supervised Maiello, and the diocese.
The civil trial is being heard by state Supreme Court Justice R. Bruce Cozzens Jr. in Mineola. According to published reports, Manhattan attorney Michael Dowd, who represents the plaintiffs, has said that Haggerty had failed to do a background check on Maiello. If he had done so, Dowd maintained, Haggerty would have discovered that Maiello had failed his Bible class while he was a student at Molloy College in Rockville Centre.
Dowd added that after Maiello was hired, he was allowed to take students into his office in the church¹s basement without supervision. There, Dowd said, Maiello would videotape the youths having sex with him and with each other.
Brian Davey, a lawyer for the diocese, said that Haggerty was a victim of Maiello¹s lies. On the witness stand, Haggerty said that he would not have hired Maiello if he had known of his poor grades.
