Diocese will not appeal jury's $11.45 million award in abuse trial

Published: 2007-05-22

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (CNS) -- Rockville Centre diocesan spokesman Sean Dolan said the diocese will not appeal a jury's May 18 verdict awarding $11.45 million to a man and a woman who were sexually abused as minors by a Catholic youth minister. "The diocese decided not to appeal because it felt a new trial would only open up the wounds again," Dolan told Catholic News Service May 22. He said the diocese seeks healing for the victims and also for the parish where the abuse took place. The victims, now in their early 20s, said Matthew Maiello sexually assaulted them repeatedly over several years, beginning in 1999 when they were 15. At the time Maiello was employed as a youth minister at St. Raphael Parish in East Meadow and they came into contact with him through parish youth activities. Maiello, now 33, pleaded guilty in 2003 to raping and sodomizing the plaintiffs and two other minors and served two years in prison.

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