Plaintiff Tries To Confront Priest

A man who sued a former vice chancellor of the Boston archdiocese last week for alleged sexual abuse 23 years ago was arrested after trying to confront the priest at his home, police said.

Garry M. Garland, 38, of Hanover, headed to Monsignor Frederick J. Ryan's home Thursday in suburban Chelsea, where Ryan has been staying since he was removed from his parish, police said.

Garland's lawyer called police at about 4 p.m. and said his client “may be on his way to injure the priest” and was “out of control,” Chelsea Police Chief Frank Garvin said. Officers staked out Ryan's home and waited for Garland to arrive.

Garland fled the area in his car when he saw police, but he was later arrested, police said.

There was “something similar to a knife in the car,” Garvin said, but added that it was never brandished as a weapon. He said there was also a note — possibly a suicide note — in Garland's car.

“We're taking a serious look at whether or not he intended to harm himself,” the chief said.

Garland was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.

He was charged with misdemeanor offenses including disorderly conduct and failure to stop for police. He was scheduled to be arraigned Friday in Chelsea District Court, according to the Suffolk County district attorney's office.

Ryan was home during the incident, Garvin said.

In a statement, Boston Archdiocese spokeswoman Donna M. Morrissey called the incident “sad and troubling.”

“We give thanks to God that no one was hurt,” she said.

In his suit filed last week, Garland claims Ryan sexually abused him in 1979 when Ryan was living at the chancery in Boston. Garland has since also accused Cardinal Humberto Medeiros, who died in 1983, of groping him.

The abuse allegedly occurred when Garland was a student at Catholic Memorial High School, where Ryan was chaplain.

Ryan, pastor of St. Joseph's Parish in Kingston and head of the 16-parish Plymouth Vicariate, has been put on administrative leave by the archdiocese while it investigates the allegations.

Also on Thursday, prosecutors in St. Louis said they were investigating about 50 complaints of child sexual abuse, including up to 22 against a defrocked priest who worked as an elementary school counselor.

The defrocked priest, who worked as a counselor until last week, was charged Thursday with three counts of sexual misconduct for exposing himself to two boys in an elementary school bathroom, authorities said.

Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce said that up to 19 other sexual abuse complaints against James Beine, 60, are under investigation. Beine was dismissed from the clergy in 1977 after allegations of abuse were made, said archdiocese spokeswoman Terry Edelmann. Since 1994, eight lawsuits have been filed charging Beine with sexually molesting nine boys while working as a priest in the 1960s and 70s.

Beine was arrested Thursday at a residence in Highland, Ill., about 30 miles east of St. Louis, and was jailed on $100,000 bond.

In Los Angeles, Police Chief Bernard Parks asked the archdiocese Thursday to give him any information it has about abuse cases involving priests. Parks cited a recent Los Angeles Times report that as many as a dozen priests have been dismissed by the archdiocese for sexually abusing minors.

Cardinal Roger Mahony, in a reply to the chief, said: “Recently dismissed priests who were in the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles Police Department have been duly reported. They were prosecuted and served probation — many years ago. These cases are a matter of public record.”