MIAMI - A Miami jury returned a $100 million verdict yesterday against a retired Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing dozens of boys over many years - an amount unlikely to ever be collected, but one a victim's attorney said sends a strong message to child predators.
"Now we know what a jury thinks about these cases," said Jeff Herman, who represented Andres Sousana in the case against the priest, Neil Doherty. "No. 2, it sends a message that we hope will protect other children."
Sousana told reporters he was just 14 when he ran away from home and wound up in Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood in the 1980s. It was there that more than 20 people now claim Doherty trolled for victims wearing his priest's collar, gaining their trust and then plying the boys with drugs and alcohol and sexually abusing them.
"What he did to me, it's unforgiveable. It's something I'm going to have to live with the rest of my life," said Sousana, 40.
Despite the verdict's size, it is the least of Doherty's legal troubles. He has been jailed in neighboring Broward County since last year awaiting trial on multiple child-sex-abuse charges involving a different young victim. Doherty, 68, has pleaded not guilty to those charges.
