Over the last two weeks, both the Archdiocese of New York and the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Scarsdale have sought to distance themselves from Edwin Gaynor, the former teacher at the center of an ongoing sexual abuse lawsuit.
Since July 15, the Archdiocese and IHM have filed cross claims contending that Gaynor alone should bear full responsibility in the current Child Victims Act suit, and that any financial judgment against the Archdiocese or IHM should fall directly on him. All three parties are co-defendants in the case.
“If plaintiff recovers herein, it will be by virtue of the intentional, reckless, careless, negligent, grossly negligent, wanton, willful, malicious, or criminal conduct of defendant Edwin Gaynor and not of IHM, for which IHM demands judgment for contribution and indemnification for any judgment,” reads the claim filed by lawyers for the Scarsdale church.
Since November of last year, 21 accusers have come forward with allegations of abuse against Gaynor, now 85, who worked in some capacity for at least three different Westchester parishes from the mid-1950s to 1986. The Archdiocese and IHM—along with Holy Rosary in Hawthorne—are named as co-defendants for their negligence pertaining to Gaynor’s continued employment and their failure to protect children from sexual abuse.
Claims by both the Archdiocese and IHM say that any finding for the plaintiffs should be interpreted as a result of Gaynor’s misconduct and not as a result of any wrongdoing or inaction by the other two co-defendants.
But the recent filings do not address the allegations of several accusers, who claim in their lawsuits that church and school officials were repeatedly made aware of Gaynor’s behavior.
Six of the 21 accusers contend that either they or their parents alerted school officials about the abuse, only to see most of those claims dismissed by parish leadership.
One anonymous plaintiff claimed he told the Holy Rosary Monsignor about the abuse in 1971, only to be forced to perform three hours of prayer and write “God Loves Me” on a chalkboard 100 times as penance. Another plaintiff, David Fox, recalls telling IHM Msgr. John J. Caldwell, only to be called a “liar” and removed from Caldwell’s office.
Dan O’Hare, who replaced Gaynor as the IHM basketball coach and gym teacher around 1967, confirmed in a sworn deposition that he was made aware by a parish priest that Gaynor was removed from his position because he had improperly touched a student. Despite this information, O’Hare admitted that Gaynor’s dismissal was never further addressed by anyone at IHM, even as Gaynor would return to the Scarsdale campus at least once per year in his new capacity as the basketball coach at Holy Rosary. Gaynor would also return to coach at IHM at some point in the 1980s.
The co-defendants’ new claims follow numerous failed attempts to limit Gaynor’s involvement in the proceedings. Previously, motions had been filed to strike Gaynor’s written testimony—admitting guilt in two of the cases—from the record, and force him to undergo a competency hearing before being deposed. To date, Gaynor has refused legal counsel representation.
Gaynor’s deposition is currently scheduled to occur no later than Aug. 7, though the Ossining resident had previously announced his intention to disregard a court order to provide testimony.
For accusers like Fox, 66, any attempt on the Archdiocese’s part to mitigate potential financial losses goes hand-in-hand with the institutional failings that they feel enabled Gaynor’s alleged abuse to continue for decades.
“I don’t forgive Gaynor, but I’m compassionate enough to not want to see an 85-year-old man die in jail,” Fox said. “But I want to see the church pay, I want them to admit what they did.”
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