Former student sues McDonogh School in Maryland over sexual abuse by former dean of students
BALTIMORE — A former student is suing the McDonogh School alleging sexual abuse by a former dean of students who worked at the Owings Mills boarding school for 40 years.
In a civil lawsuit filed Thursday in the United States District Court of Maryland, Dennis Wedekind of Delta, Pa., alludes he was abused by former Dean of Students Alvin Joseph Levy as a student between 1980 and 1984.
“Mr. Wedekind suffered great harm and abuse while he was a student at McDonogh and until today the school has escaped accountability,” Attorney Ari Casper, who is representing the plaintiff, said. “That ends with this complaint.”
Casper said the lawsuit has jurisdiction in federal court because the plaintiff and defendant are in different states and the damages exceed $75,000.
Casper also said the statute of limitations set by the Maryland Child Victim Act apply in federal court. The law enacted last April abolished a previous time limit for people sexually abused as children to sue the perpetrators and the institutions that enabled the abuse. Currently, several appeals of lawsuits under the act are in Maryland courts. Last month, a federal judge in Prince George’s County paused a ruling to ask the state Supreme Court to define the law.
In 2019, the school released the results of an investigation by New York-based firm T&M Protection Resources that found five former faculty members allegedly sexually assaulted about two dozen students from the 1940s to the mid-1980s. The firm also found that some of the allegations were reported to the school at the time they happened and previous school administrators and members of the board of trustees failed to take appropriate action.
“As the school later acknowledged, its administration and board knew that Levy had been abusing McDonogh students for decades prior to plaintiff’s enrollment there in 1980,” the lawsuit says.
The investigation, which included interviews with 68 people, found Levy and another faculty member, Robert Creed, allegedly engaged in sexual misconduct with 19 male students over a period of four decades.
Levy was indicted in 1992 by a Baltimore County grand jury on sexual abuse charges brought by another former student. He died before his scheduled court date facing charges of child abuse, second- and third-degree sexual offenses, perverted sexual practice and assault and battery.
According to charging documents, police recorded a 22-minute conversation in which Mr. Levy allegedly made damaging statements about the incidents. His attorney at the time told The Sun that Levy would not contest the charges.
“Dean Levy sexually assaulted plaintiff and violated his bodily integrity,” the lawsuit reads. “Levy’s abusive actions and personality-destroying predatory sexual assaults, attempted assaults, and other inappropriate behavior occurred at places of his choosing, including in the Dean of Students office, the plaintiff’s dorm room, and other locations in and around school facilities.”
