In a novel lawsuit, parishioners claim their Detroit priest was falsely accused of sex abuse, framed by church leaders, and are suing to get him back.
DETROIT – After 41 years in the priesthood, Father Eduard Perrone wasn't prepared for the hellfire that tore through his parish last summer: He was accused of molesting an altar boy decades earlier, and ousted from his church.
According to police reports, the claim involved a 54-year-old man who alleged that Perrone started grooming him when he was 13 while he was an altar boy at St. Peter Catholic Church in Mount Clemens. In the eyes of the Catholic Church, the man's inconsistencies didn't matter as it concluded that there was a"semblance of truth" to what the accuser was saying, and it couldn't afford to look the other way. So on July 5, the archdiocese stripped Perrone of his collar pending further review from the Vatican.Two weeks after Perrone's ouster from Assumption Grotto, another former altar boy from St.
Multiple states launched clergy abuse investigations of their own, including Michigan, whose attorney general charged five Catholic priests with criminal sexual conduct last year. “ight now it’s time to tell us exactly what happened," a detective told the accuser in an interview four days before Perrone's removal. "Not fondling, not sodomized. … You have to describe the act. … It has to be penis. It has to be hand. It has to be body parts, and you have to tell us that Eduard Perrone did this. That’s it. … And we’re going to be on our way to peace.”"There's been a dark cloud over our parish since it happened.
"We're trying to help those folks," McGrath said."The majority of the people who come forward just want to get it off their chest. They’ve read about another case and they finally get the guts up to do something about it." And with clergy sex abuse, Geffner said, there's the added sense of guilt and shame, particularly for those who are deeply religious and fear they did something to deserve this, or that"this is what God wants."
According to police and church records reviewed by the Free Press, initially, the man was uncooperative. He refused to give his name or disclose details to the hotline intake worker. He said he was afraid. Investigators also interviewed four other altar boys who were the accuser's age and served Mass for Perrone. None disclosed any knowledge of Perrone abusing children, though two described the accuser as being the"vulnerable type."
That other altar boy is James Fortenberry, a nurse who now lives in Huntsville, Alabama, and believes his childhood priest has been done wrong. Fortenberry believes investigators have manipulated his friend into making such allegations, claiming they also tried to coerce him into saying negative things about Perrone.
" 'Are you sure? People are telling me that things could have happened, '"Fortenberry recalled the man answering back."I'm not saying our church hasn't had problems with pedophiles," Fortenberry said."But I think the church needs to stand up for our good priests. And Father Perrone is a good priest."It was some reporters with the Associated Press.
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