New Lawsuit Alleges Sexual Abuse by Former Danbury Priest

DANBURY, CT — New lawsuits filed on Friday allege sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests in four local municipalities, including Danbury, the CTPost is reporting.

The lawsuits were filed by five men and claim the abuse occurred from the late 1980s through the early 2000s and were filed in state Superior Court in Bridgeport.

The Rev. Larry Jensen, former spiritual director of the Diocese of Bridgeport's Emmaus youth ministry program, has been accused by one plaintiff of abuse at St. Anthony Maronite Catholic Church in Danbury. The priest served eight years at St. Anthony's before being transferred to St. Joseph Maronite Catholic Church in Waterville, Maine. Jensen was removed from the priesthood in 2017.

Two other priests, the Rev. Walter Coleman and the Rev. Robert Morrissey, were alleged to have abused plaintiffs in Bridgeport, Brookfield and Ridgefield.

To sign up for Danbury breaking news alerts and more, click here.

Three of the complaints were against Coleman. Two of the men are former altar boys at St. Patrick’s Church, now known as The Cathedral Parish, in Bridgeport, and students at St. Patrick’s School when they were allegedly abused in the 1970s and 1980s by Coleman. He was pastor of the parish at the time. Another man claims he was sexually abused by Coleman at St. Joseph’s Parish in Brookfield in the 1980s, when Coleman was reassigned there as pastor. Coleman died in 2016.

The final plaintiff was allegedly sexually abused by Morrissey at St. Mary’s Parish in Ridgefield in the 1990s.

For more, see the CTPost.

Image via Shutterstock