NEW CUMBERLAND – A circuit judge has denied a motion by the Catholic Church to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Weirton man who claims he was sexually abused as a child by a priest.
In a February 11 order, Hancock Circuit Judge David Sims denied the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston’s Motion to Dismiss the case filed by Thomas J. Spinella Jr.
In his complaint filed in November, Spinella says he was sexually abused by Reverend Victor Frobas while attending St. Paul’s Catholic School in Weirton in the 1980s.
Toriseva
“The court finds that plaintiff has sufficiently set forth a cause of action against defendant in a manner that permits plaintiff to maintain his cause of action under West Virginia statutory and common law,” Sims wrote in his order. “There has been no formal discovery in this matter and facts may be more fully developed during discovery. … The allegations in the complaint are sufficient to defeat the defendant’s Motion to Dismiss. It is accordingly.”
Spinella’s case is one of four filed last year by men who all make similar claims against Frobas. Spinella and Michael R. Valero Jr. filed their complaints November 24 in Hancock Circuit Court. Attorneys Teresa Toriseva and Joshua Miller also filed motions to consolidate these cases with two similar cases filed earlier this year in Hancock County regarding the actions of Reverend Victor Frobas.
According to the complaints, the men attended St. Paul’s Catholic School in Weirton when they were children, and both of their families were active members of the church. Spinella, who lives in Weirton, says he served as an altar boy and participated in the church Boy Scout troop.
“As we have alleged, we have proof that The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston actively concealed and covered up sexual assaults by priests for decades, including Frobas, and made child parishioners easy prey for Frobas and other priests,” Toriseva previously told The West Virginia Record. “These methods involved moving Frobas, for example, from parish to parish and included bizarre and hard to believe ‘treatment methods’ for pedophile priests. The so-called ‘treatment methods’ themselves are stomach turning.
“The statute of limitations is tolled and extended when a defendant engages in a sustained campaign to cover up the acts of pedophilia committed against little boys. We have alleged and intend to prove that the church protected “father” Frobas, who they knew was a child molester, instead of protecting the children of the church. These four men all deserve answers. They deserve justice.”
Spinella was 12 years old at the time of the incidents. Spinella says he was sexually assaulted by Frobas more than 40 times during a 15-month period.
One of the priests assigned to St. Paul’s then was Frobas, who worked for the Diocese from 1965 to 1983. Before that, Frobas worked for the Diocese of Philadelphia, where there were multiple claims alleging Frobas abused minors.
“At no time did the Diocese warn or notify the parishioners, students, scouts, or others who came in contact with Frobas of his history as a serial sexual abuser,” the complaint states, noting that Frobas had access to minor children including the plaintiffs when he was at St. Paul’s.
Spinella says Frobas sexually abused him.
The complaints say Frobas lived in the elementary school and often would take young male students from class to his apartment where he molested them. Frobas also was the Scoutmaster of the parish Boy Scout troop. The victims say Frobas sexually abused them at multiple locations, including Diocesan properties and a movie theater in nearby Robinson Township, Pennsylvania, and a camping area in nearby Paris, Pennsylvania.
Spinella provided more details in his complaint. He said the first assault took place on a Friday in November 1980 in Frobas’ apartment in the second-floor rectory inside St. Paul’s school.
“Frobas, as was his modus operandi lured Thomas to his apartment with the promise to play Frobas’ Intellivsion video game system,” the complaint states. “Thomas entered the second-floor rectory hallway, walking several steps before making a left into Frobas’ personal quarters which consisted of a living room and a small bedroom. Thomas reports that Frobas’ personal quarters were sparsely furnished and that his Intellivision was located in Frobas’ bedroom on a coffee table. …
“We (Thomas and Frobas) sat down on the couch and began playing video games for about 15 minutes when he asked me if I wanted to smoke a cigar. I thought smoking a cigar would be ‘cool’ so I agreed. He lit up a new cigar and gave it to me. Never smoking any tobacco products previously, I puff on the cigar and incorrectly inhaled its smoke. I coughed out the smoke and was immediately dizzy and nauseated. Father Vic (Frobas) asked me if I wanted to lie on his bed to recover, and I agreed.
“After I went into his bedroom and lay on his bed, he entered the room and said something along the lines of him needed my help. He then rolled me over on to my stomach and on to the side of the bed, pulled down my pants and assaulted me. Being ignorant and essentially incapacitated, I neither understood what was happening nor did I resist.”
Spinella says Frobas invited him again a week later, and he declined to visit. Frobas told Spinella’s father his son was being disobedient. After being punished by his father, the boy was told “to do whatever the priest said.”
“Frobas continued to abuse Thomas at St. Paul’s either in Frobas’ personal quarters in the church rectory, or a small meeting room located inside of a general purpose room on the first floor of the school where altar boy garments were stored and where altar boys would dress,” the complaint continues. “During the school year the sexual assaults occurred in Frobas’ personal quarters, either after dismissal from school in the afternoon or before Thomas’s attendance at weekly Boy Scout meetings which were held in the school cafeteria in the evening and in the previously mentioned small meeting room following Thomas’ completion of his altar boy duties.
“Frobas’ assaults of Thomas continued during the summer months as well, with assaults occurring in Frobas’ personal quarters. By Thomas’s recollection, Frobas’ assaults ended in February on 1982 when Thomas sustained an anal injury.”
The complaints say the Diocese regularly reassigned and/or transferred Frobas as allegations of sexual abuse of children arose.
“Not only did the Diocese continue to employ Frobas, a pedophile priest, the Diocese moved him from parish to parish giving Frobas new children to sexually abuse,” the complaints state. “Instead of protecting its children, the Diocese made them prey for a pedophile.”
In 2018, the Diocese released the names of clergy who had been accused of sexual abuse of minors. Frobas’ name was on the list.
“This list, naming clergy accused of sexual abuse of minors proves that the Diocese continued to employ priests even after receiving credible reports of sexual abuse of minors by its employees,” the complaint states. “This list proves that the Diocese also knew all along that Frobas was sexually abusing children.”
The plaintiffs claim the list proves the Diocese continued to employ priests even after receiving credible reports of sexual abuse of minors. They say the Diocese knew of Frobas’ background as well as credible allegations against him. Yet, he still was allowed to come to West Virginia and was “moved frequently due to suspicions of and sometimes allegations of sexual abuse if children.”
The men accuse the Diocese of vicarious liability, civil conspiracy, fraudulent concealment, sexual assault and harassment on Diocesan property and at Diocesan events as well as negligent retention, hiring and supervision.
The plaintiffs say they suffered significant physical, psychological and personal injury as well as shame, embarrassment, lost wages, diminished earning capacity, past and future enjoyment of life as well as other harms and damages. He seeks compensatory damages, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
According to published reports, Frobas was sent to his home Diocese in St. Louis in 1983 for “treatment.” He pleaded guilty in 1988 of molesting two teenage boys at a church in Kirkwood, Missouri. He served 25 months of a four-year sentence for those charges. He was indicted on similar charges for in the 1970s in Massachusetts, but he died of cancer and diabetes in 1993 before that trial. Frobas was sued once in Massachusetts and twice previously in West Virginia in 1993 and 1994.
“In November of 2018, the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston published a list of priests that were credibly accused of sexual abuse,” Toriseva told The Record. “The Wheeling-Charleston list includes 20 names of priests that were credibly accused of sexual abuse from 1950 to 2018.
“Father Frobas, the pedophile priest in these cases, is on the list. He was moved at least 17 times in one 18-year period by the church. Imagine the harm he did at each new location. It’s morally despicable to facilitate a pedophile predator when you know of repeated instances of grooming and sexual abuse of children.
“The church must compensate its victims.”
The complaints accuse the Diocese of vicarious liability, civil conspiracy, fraudulent concealment, sexual assault and harassment on Diocesan property and at Diocesan related events as well as negligent retention, hiring and supervision.
The plaintiffs seek compensatory damages for special and general injuries including permanent physical injuries, past and future pain and suffering and mental anguish, past and future lost enjoyment of life, past and future humiliation, embarrassment, indignity and shame, economic damages, diminished earning capacity, future lost wages, attorney fees court costs and other relief.
Spinella’s case has been assigned to Circuit Judge David Sims, and Valero’s case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Michael Olejasz. As in other recent cases, the Diocese is being represented by James Gardill of Phillips, Gardill, Kaiser & Altmeyer in Wheeling.
In one of the previously filed cases, Sims denied the Diocese’s motion to dismiss and a later motion to alter or amend that ruling, claiming the judge failed to consider its reply brief and that the complaint didn’t meet the statute of limitations standards. The Diocese later filed a Writ of Prohibition with the state Supreme Court. In December, the justices refused to issue the writ.
Hancock Circuit Court case numbers 20-C-88
