Former Zionsville priest sues church for $10 million

A former Zionsville priest who was suspended from active ministry has sued another priest and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette for $10 million.

The Rev. James DeOreo’s lawsuit asserts that the other priest and diocese defamed him after a parishioner of St. Alphonsus Liguori Church in Zionsville made claims against him in 2021. The other priest, the Rev. Theodore Dudzinski, also committed fraud, DeOreo asserts.

A parishioner claimed in January 2021 that DeOreo encouraged him to fast and participate in other spiritual and ascetic practices that caused the teen to have an eating disorder.

Dudzinski, corporate secretary and vicar general for the Lafayette diocese, oversaw an investigation and privately instructed DeOreo, who was stationed at Our Lady of Mount Carmel then, to suspend active ministry until the investigation’s end, according to the suit filed March 8 in Boone Circuit Court.

Dudzinski hired an independent investigator who determined the allegation was unsubstantiated and that DeOreo did not cause the eating disorder, according to the lawsuit. DeOreo was then returned to active ministry with no other consequence.

But the matter didn’t end there.

The diocese informed the teen that neither the diocese, nor DeOreo, committed abuse nor were they responsible for the eating disorder.

But the diocese also agreed to pay for the teen’s psychotherapy to aid in coping with their mental issues and eating disorder. As part of the arrangement, Dudzinski was allowed to sit in on some of the teen’s therapy sessions, according to the lawsuit.

During the appointments and through correspondence, Dudzinski “preyed upon complainer’s desire for vengeance and blame for his eating disorder,” according to the suit. Further, DeOreo alleges that Dudzinski created the false impression that if the teen made claims of a sexual nature the diocese would compensate him and punish DeOreo.

Dudzinski told the teen that the diocese prohibited DeOreo from being around minors, which Dudzinski knew was untrue, according to the lawsuit.

The teen then made a second allegation in October 2021 that DeOreo had sexually harassed and groomed him.

DeOreo was placed on leave during a second investigation.

Investigators interviewed the teen and reported to the diocese that the allegations were unfounded and not credible. There was no evidence to substantiate them, according to the lawsuit.

But Dudzinski created a false impression with the teen and their family that DeOreo was prohibited by the diocese from contact with children, and the teen contacted the diocese to report that DeOreo was at a service where children were present. DeOreo was not prohibited from contact with children.

Diocese leadership then, for the first time, restricted DeOreo from public ministry with youth or any parishioner of St. Alphonsus.

He was not restricted from non-ministerial contact with youth. But diocesan leadership didn’t have all the information needed to make that decision, because Dudzinski kept it from them, the lawsuit claims.

Dudzinski “operated to hide, obfuscate, or destroy the findings of the review board and acted to intentionally create the false impression in diocesan leadership, including Bishop Timothy Doherty, that complainer’s new allegations were credible, actionable, or otherwise harmful to the diocese,” according to DeOreo’s suit.

Then the teen’s family objected to DeOreo attending a school swim meet, still believing what Dudzinski had told them about DeOreo being prohibited from contact with children, the suit claims. DeOreo was there as a guest of a swimmer’s family.

Dudzinski leveraged the complaint to intentionally make diocesan leadership believe DeOreo violated the terms of their agreement with him and that his doing so could expose them to legal liability, according to the lawsuit.

The diocese then did suspend DeOreo on March 11, 2022, from “all public exercise of sacred orders ...” He was evicted from the rectory at Our Lady of Mount Carmel church and prohibited from residing within Howard, Boone or Hamilton counties, plus prohibited from wearing clerical garb, according to his lawsuit.

The diocese then published a statement to parishioners of Mount Carmel, the diocese, and the news media that allegations of inappropriate conduct with a minor caused DeOreo’s suspension.

The statement also asked anyone with information about sexually abusive conduct to report it to Child Protective Services and said “the safety and well-being of our children and young people are of the utmost importance.”

The diocese knew the statement to be inaccurate, and as a result of its publication, news media reported that he was suspended for inappropriate conduct with a minor and some reporters “reasonably presumed that sexual abuse was at issue,” based on the statement.

A news agency suggested that it’s rare for an abuser to have just one victim and that it may take decades for other victims to come forward. Another reported that DeOreo was ordained in 2018 and may already have other victims.

All this occurred despite the diocese performing no further investigations and finding no more evidence, after the parishioner’s allegations.

The suit claims the diocese has allowed the misinformation created by the March 2022 statement to persist and that it suggests criminal and sexual misconduct in “reckless disregard of its falsity.”

DeOreo said he was not a danger to children and there was no public interest in publishing the defamatory statement. The actions of Dudzinski and the diocese damaged DeOreo’s reputation and caused him harm, he claims.

Dudzinski and the diocese have been served with the lawsuit, though neither had responded as of Tuesday.

A source close to DeOreo said he is not available for interviews and that he lives in the Indianapolis area and has not left the priesthood.

The source said reinstatement is up to Bishop Doherty and directed questions regarding DeOreo’s status with the church to him.

A diocese spokesperson did not return a call from The Lebanon Reporter.

Read the entire lawsuit online at https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/storage/pdf/diocese-complaint.pdf.pdf.

The Pillar, an independent Catholic publication, reported that DeOreo wrote a letter to supporters recently, saying, in part, “If at any moment the bishop proclaims [that] … there is not a single instance or piece of evidence which shows any misconduct or wrongdoing, I will happily enter negotiations with the Bishop and the diocese to bring litigation to an immediate conclusion.”

DeOreo also sued the parishioner who made the original allegations, claiming the allegations could cause irreparable harm and prevent him from participating in parish ministry.

The two settled out of court this month, news outlets reported.

This story has been corrected to indicate ownership of The Pillar.