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Gaynor’s replacement testifies in abuse case

During a June 25 deposition in the ongoing abuse case against former Immaculate Heart of Mary gym teacher and coach Edwin Gaynor, Dan O’Hare—a former colleague who took over for Gaynor at IHM in the late 1960s—testified that Gaynor was dismissed from IHM following allegations of sexual misconduct. But despite being forced out at IHM it appears as though a culture of silence allowed Gaynor to continue to coach at area Catholic schools.

During the deposition, O’Hare—who would go on to a 49-year teaching career at both IHM and the Ursuline School in New Rochelle—admitted to lawyers that he did not speak out after learning Gaynor had received another local coaching job at Holy Rosary in Hawthorne.

“I didn’t think it was my business,” he said. “No one ever asked me.”

Since November 2019, 21 former students and players have filed sexual assault lawsuits against Gaynor under the Child Victims Act, naming the Archdiocese of New York and other parishes where Gaynor has worked—including IHM and Holy Rosary—as co-defendants for failing to put an end to more than 26 years of alleged misconduct.

O’Hare’s testimony, which was obtained by The Review, sheds light on how a general culture of silence and lack of accountability may have allowed these purported misdeeds to continue.

A photo showing accused sexual abuser Edwin Gaynor (far right) alongside an IHM basketball team from the 1980s was at the center of the recent deposition of the team’s coach, Dan O’Hare. According to O’Hare, Gaynor was not affiliated with the IHM team but serving in an administrative role for the league.

O’Hare began teaching religion and history at IHM in 1966 and testified that sometime in either 1967 or 1968, he was approached by school officials in the middle of the year to replace Gaynor as the seventh- and eighth-grade physical education teacher and basketball coach.

It was at this meeting where O’Hare learned that Gaynor’s abrupt dismissal was due to accusations that he had inappropriately touched a student.

“I was called to a meeting with one of the parish priests and he told me of an incident . . . between the boy and Mr. Gaynor,” O’Hare said while being deposed. “The parish priest said he had a conversation with Mr. Gaynor about it and that Gaynor admitted to it.

Court documents show that of Gaynor’s 21 accusers, 17 allege that the abuse took place at IHM between 1961 and 1968. Four of those accusers claim that incidents of abuse were reported to IHM officials at the time. But those other reported accusations were not divulged to O’Hare in the meeting with the parish priest.

O’Hare went on to recount that the reasons behind Gaynor’s departure were simply never addressed in any way by IHM administration or faculty and that parents—including a “Men’s Club” that O’Hare said was comprised of community fathers that was tasked with raising money for IHM’s youth sports programs—never questioned him about Gaynor’s dismissal.

O’Hare also never broached the subject with Gaynor in the ensuing years, as the two men’s coaching careers intertwined. Gaynor would return to IHM’s campus regularly as the youth basketball coach at Holy Rosary and also served as the founder, chairperson and scheduler of the Catholic Athletic League, CAL, or Catholic Athletic Association, CAA, an organization in which both IHM and Holy Rosary—along with other local Archdiocesan schools—participated in. O’Hare even worked for Gaynor briefly, serving as an instructor at the basketball camp Gaynor ran out of the Holy Rosary gymnasium.

When asked by lawyers during his deposition, O’Hare noted that, as an employee of IHM from 1966 to 1985, he was never made aware of any code of conduct policy, something he noted was part of the standard teaching contract he would sign at the Ursuline School, when he left IHM in 1985. In fact, O’Hare could not recall ever signing an employee contract at IHM and recalled that employee behavior was governed by an “unwritten” code.

“There was a code of conduct at Ursuline, not that I recall at IHM,” he said. “A person working in a religiously affiliated school, I mean, would obviously have a . . . personal code of conduct as far as I’m concerned.”

Gaynor would return to coach at IHM in the 1980s, although the exact timeline of his return remains unclear. One of the plaintiffs, identified as SCVAWCJ-DOE, alleges that he was abused by Gaynor at IHM between 1985 and 1986. O’Hare testified that he never coached with Gaynor in the 1980s.

Gaynor appears in a team photo that contains both SCVAWCJ-DOE and O’Hare, but O’Hare testified that Gaynor was simply in the photo in his capacity as a league commissioner presenting a trophy after a championship game.

On July 8, the judge presiding over the case, Hon. Steven M. Jaeger, set a series of deadlines for discovery and upcoming depositions. Both IHM and the Archdiocese of New York have until Aug. 22 to be deposed, while Gaynor—who had previously announced his refusal to comply with the judge’s orders—has until Aug. 7.

 

Contact: sports@hometwn.com