By Gretchen Keiser

An attorney from the church for the deaths in 1990 of a Marietta couple is baseless.

The daughter of Charles and Barbara Boehm filed suite March 21, alleging that her parents’ deaths were the result of an affair between Mrs. Boehm and Maronite Catholic priest, Father Elias Abi-Sarkis. He is not a priest of the archdiocese of Atlanta.

The lawsuit said Mr. Boehm killed his wife and then killed himself last July after he learned of the alleged affair.

In the suit Jennifer Boehm alleged her mother was seduced in March 1989 by the priest, who is pastor of St. Joseph’s Maronite church in Atlanta, where Mrs. Boehm was a parishioner.

The lawsuit further contends that Mrs. Boehm’s brother and sister became aware of the alleged affair and informed the diocese of St. Maron, which is headquartered in Brooklyn, N.Y., and oversees Maronite priests and parishes in the United States. They charge that the archdiocese of Atlanta was asked by the Maronite diocese to investigate the family’s report and that the archdiocese conducted a “reckless, superficial investigation” that provoked no action by the Maronite diocese in regard to the priest.

Because of this connection with Atlanta, the lawsuit seeks damages not only from Father Abi-Sarkis, and the Maronite diocese and Archbishop Francis Zayek, but also from the Atlanta archdiocese and Bishop James P. Lyke, OFM, as apostolic administrator.

David Brown, attorney for the Atlanta archdiocese, called the claim against Atlanta “totally baseless.”

He denied that the archdiocese investigated the matter. An archdiocesan priest who is a canon lawyer interviewed people and “reported the findings to the Brooklyn diocese,” Brown said.

“It was not a request to the archdiocese. It was a request to one individual who is familiar with canon law,” he said. He said the interviews did not constitute an investigation.

Father Abi-Sarkis is not a priest of the Atlanta archdiocese, since the Maronite rite, which dates back to early centuries of Christianity, has its own structure. There are approximately 52,400 Maronites under the jurisdiction of the Brooklyn diocese. Worldwide there are over 2 million Maronites, primarily in Lebanon, Cyprus, Syria and Egypt. Maronite Catholics are in union with Rome.

Father Abi-Sarkis could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts. In a 1989 Georgia Bulletin interview, the priest said he studied at Catholic University and was ordained in Lebanon in 1975 by Archbishop Zayek. He said he is a U.S. citizen and a native of Lebanon.

He was appointed pastor of St. Joseph’s Maronite parish in Atlanta in November 1988, a 300-family parish, the article said.

The lawsuit filed in Atlanta also revealed that Father Abi-Sarkis was accused in a previous post in Cleveland of rape and sexual imposition on a woman. He was convicted, but the conviction was overturned by an appeals court for lack of evidence, according to Catholic News Service. The charges were filed in 1986, CNS reported, and overturned the following spring. The priest was placed on leave of absence for a period of time, CNS reported, before he was assigned to Atlanta.

Richard Shadyac, Sr., an attorney for the diocese of St. Maron, said, “The diocese has great empathy for the daughter of the deceased individuals, but the diocese has no responsibility in this matter.”

(Jerry Filteau of Catholic News Service contributed to this article.)