Kenneth Bonadies Clergy Abuse
MANCHESTER — The lawyer for a man who received a payment from the Archdiocese of Hartford after he accused a priest of abusing him at East Catholic High School and St. Bartholomew Church in the 1980s said he expects more victims may now come forward.
The lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian, said Wednesday that the Archdiocese agreed to pay his client in the low six figures to settle a claim. Garabedian said his client wished to keep the exact amount unknown.
The man accused the Rev. Kenneth Bonadies of sexually abusing him at East Catholic High School and St. Bartholomew Church in the 1980s, and the Archdiocese of Hartford found the accusations credible, the lawyer said.
Garabedian announced the settlement Wednesday at a news conference outside of the Archdiocese’s headquarters on Farmington Avenue in Hartford.
Based on Bonadies’ assignment history and the number of times his client was abused, Garabedian said he believes there could be dozens more people who were victims of Bonadies.
“Now that the ice has been broken and Father Bonadies’ name is out there publicly, vicitms will become empowered and come forward to report also having been sexually abused,” Garabedian said.
Garabedian said his client was sexually abused by Bonadies from approximately 1981 to 1985 when he was between about 14-17 years of age. The victim said he was sexually abused more than 100 times by Bonadies at East Catholic High School in Manchester, at Bonadies’ home in Eastford, in the rectory of St. Bartholomew’s Church in Manchester, and several other locations.