Boston Archdiocese Agrees to Settle With 86 Victims

In one of the biggest such settlements on record, the Archdiocese of Boston has agreed to pay up to $30 million to 86 people who accused now-defrocked priest John J. Geoghan of child molestation.

“Accepting this money is not going to end the turmoil in their lives,” said plaintiffs’ attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who announced the settlement at a news conference Tuesday. “They are not going to be buying yachts and floating around the Bahamas. There’s tremendous pain here.”

Under the settlement, which was reached Monday night, the victims and their families will receive a total of $15 million to $30 million, Garabedian said.

“This settlement is an important step in reaching closure for these victims who have long endured the damage done to them by John Geoghan,” Cardinal Bernard F. Law said in a statement.

The archdiocese already has paid an estimated $15 million to 40 of Geoghan’s victims since the mid-1990s.

Unlike many other settlements reached by the church in child molestation cases, this one is not covered by a confidentiality clause.

Geoghan has been accused by more than 130 people of molesting them. He is serving a nine- to 10-year prison sentence for groping a 10-year-old boy in a swimming pool and faces another criminal trial in a case involving a youngster.

The plaintiffs include 70 victims and 16 parents. The exact amounts that most of the 86 will receive will be determined by arbitrators, based on the harm each person suffered.