Priest targeted by another suit

By Janet I. Tu
Seattle Times staff reporter

The Rev. John Cornelius is the subject of multiple suits.

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The suit accuses the Roman Catholic priest, who has been the subject of multiple lawsuits, of molesting them at John F. Kennedy Memorial High School in Burien, and/or at St. Mary and Immaculate Conception churches and rectories in Seattle. The suit, filed in King County Superior Court, does not name the men.

Cornelius, who resigned his pastoral assignment in May 2002 after the Seattle archbishop said he would be removed from ministry, could not be reached for comment. At the time, he apologized for the pain he caused his accusers and the church but stopped short of admitting to the numerous sexual-molestation charges lodged against him.

In the lawsuit filed Wednesday, one plaintiff accused Cornelius of raping him hundreds of times over the course of 10 years. He said he met Cornelius in summer 1975, just before his freshman year at Kennedy, after his family was introduced to the priest. He said he eventually turned to drugs, couldn't keep a job, attempted suicide twice and was financially dependent on Cornelius, who provided him with money to support himself as long as he complied with the priest's sexual demands. The suit says he still suffers from "profound, debilitating and disorienting depression."

The second plaintiff, who met Cornelius around 1975 when he was a student at Kennedy, accused the priest of molesting him several times. One of those times was after the teen had passed out in Cornelius' rooms, possibly after a night of heavy drinking, and awoke to find himself undressed with the priest, naked, on top of him, the suit says.

That plaintiff also accused another priest of molesting him at the school and said that when he told a school official, that official threatened to expel him if he said any more about the incident. The official, who is no longer at Kennedy, did not return a call seeking comment.

The third plaintiff said Cornelius, who had ingratiated himself with the plaintiff's family, would wrestle with him, and he realized the priest was molesting him around 1976 when he was in the eighth grade.

The suit also names the Seattle Archdiocese and the Sulpician Order, which ran St. Thomas Seminary in Kenmore, which Cornelius attended.

Cornelius was placed on leave from Immaculate Conception Church in Everett in April 2002 after being accused for the second time in six years of sexually molesting teenage boys in the 1970s.

Subsequently, about a dozen men came forward with allegations of past abuse by Cornelius. He is being monitored by the archdiocese, said Kathy Johnson, an archdiocese spokeswoman.

Johnson said archdiocese officials had not yet received the lawsuit and would not comment on pending suits.
 
Janet I. Tu: 206-464-2272

or jtu@seattletimes.com