Diocese pays $4.5 million to settle Jasper County priest sex-abuse suit

Nearly 30 years ago, a Savannah priest allegedly sexually abused a 13-year-old boy in Jasper County.

Now the Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah is paying $4.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the victim there.

Multiple incidents of abuse, allegedly perpetrated by former priest Wayland Brown, happened in Jasper County between August 1987 and May 1988, according to court documents.

“Brown transported (the victim) by vehicle to Jasper County, South Carolina, where (he) coerced the minor into sexual touching and intercourse,” according to the suit.

The alleged victim was a student at St. James Baptist Church and School in Savannah at the time.

The suit, filed last year in Jasper County’s 14th Circuit Court, alleges that the victim was abused both in South Carolina as well as Chatham County, Ga., until May 1988.

During encounters with the victim, Brown “presented himself as a priest, engaging the plaintiff in religious prayer and counseling while wearing the vestments of the church,” the suit said.

To keep the victim quiet about the abuse, Brown threatened the boy’s “family members with eternal condemnation if (he) disclosed the sexual encounters,” the suit alleges.

Court documents explain the long gap between the alleged incidents and of the filing of the lawsuit, saying the abuse caused “severe psychological trauma and memory repression.”

Those repressed memories surfaced during “psychological therapy in November 2014,” the suit says.

The lawsuit — which names Brown, the diocese, as well as past and current church leaders as defendants — alleges a host of incidents of misconduct and abuse by Brown against children stretching back nearly 50 years.

Church leaders “knew or should have known that (Brown) was a danger to the plaintiff” and “knew that Brown was not safe and fit to be a priest,” according to the suit.

In 1969, church officials were aware of “concerns … expressed and documented about Brown’s immaturity and his having a ‘a coterie of young boys around him,’ ” the suit claims.

Over a period of 20 years, Brown worked in a series of churches in Georgia and Maryland.

In 1988, Brown was “removed from active ministry,” according to a statement released earlier this month by the Diocese of Savannah.

A 2004 decree “from the Vatican imposed laicization upon Brown,” the statement said. Laicization is a process used by the Roman Catholic Church to formally defrock a member of the clergy.

Bishop Gregory Hartmayer said in a statement that the $4.5 million settlement “demonstrates our care and concern for victims of sexual misconduct by diocesan employees or volunteers.”

The church “continues to be vigilant in protecting and promoting the welfare of children in all diocesan ministries,” Hartmayer’s statement said. “The diocese has made substantial progress in conducting background checks and educating all priests, deacons, religious, lay employees and volunteers in order to provide a safe environment for all children throughout the diocese.”

Brown — no stranger to sexual abuse allegations — has faced accusations in at least three states.

A Maryland court convicted Brown of child molestation in 2003. He served five years of a 10-year prison sentence for that crime, according to Maryland court documents.

The dioceses’ statement also acknowledges the church was aware of Brown’s stint in prison.

Brown, a registered sex offender who turns 73 next month, lives in Baltimore, according to information filed with the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

This story was originally published July 20, 2016 at 9:51 AM with the headline "Diocese pays $4.5 million to settle Jasper County priest sex-abuse suit."