Jury Awards $5.4 Million to Man Sexually Abused by Siena Catholic Academy Principal

Father Joseph Grasso served as principal of Siena Catholic Academy in Brighton, New York from 1998 to 2004. Beginning in 2002, when the plaintiff was 12 years old and enrolled in middle school there, Grasso used his position to pull the boy out of class and sexually assault him in the sacristy of the adjacent St. Thomas More Church. The abuse continued for more than a year, into 2004. Grasso allegedly threatened the boy with damnation if he ever disclosed what was happening.

The plaintiff, identified in court filings as LG 55 Doe, carried the trauma for roughly two decades. His life was severely disrupted, including a suicide attempt. New York's Child Victims Act, signed into law in 2019, opened a window that allowed survivors of childhood sexual abuse to bring civil claims that had previously been time-barred. Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria filed suit on Doe's behalf in 2020 against Grasso and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester, which had operated the now-closed school.

Attorneys Amy C. Keller and Gregory P. Krull of Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria tried the case in Monroe County Supreme Court. Evidence presented at trial detailed how Grasso exploited his authority as principal to gain unsupervised access to his student, and how the Diocese's institutional structure enabled that access. Grasso, who at the time of trial was working as a chaplain at a VA hospital in Albany, denied the allegations.

On March 13, 2024, the jury returned a unanimous verdict of $5,450,000. The award included compensatory damages for medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering, along with $3 million in punitive damages assessed directly against Grasso. No post-verdict reduction has been reported.