St. George’s School to hire investigator in sex abuse case

January 7, 2016 7:46 pm

By The Associated Press

news@abc6.com

An elite Rhode Island boarding school has agreed to hire an independent investigator to look into allegations of sexual abuse made by at least 40 former students covering four decades.

Lawyers for the alleged victims said they reached an agreement late Thursday with St. George’s School in Middletown to conduct a second investigation. Many victims had questioned the thoroughness of the school’s first investigation, which was conducted by the law partner of the school’s attorney.

Leslie Heaney, chair of St. George’s Board of Trustees, said the board is committed to a "truly impartial investigation" and will retain a third-party independent investigator.

Eric MacLeish, a lawyer for the victims, said both sides will have to agree on the investigator.

Anne Scott, a former student who said she was raped by the school’s former athletic trainer, called the agreement a "very important first step."

Earlier Thursday, an Episcopal priest accused this week of molesting three boys who went to the school was suspended from a Pennsylvania church.

Dozens of students allege they were molested or raped at St. George’s School in Middletown in the 1970s and ’80s. A lawyer for three former students named the Rev. Howard White on Tuesday as being among the six perpetrators the school identified after an internal investigation.

White is a retired priest who has been filling in at St. James Episcopal Church in Bedford, about 100 miles east of Pittsburgh. He hasn’t been charged with a crime. He didn’t return a phone message Thursday from The Associated Press. He told The New York Times on Tuesday that the accusations were "news to me." Asked by the newspaper if he had been fired because of the accusations, he said, "That isn’t really true."

Episcopal officials say he will be subjected to the church’s disciplinary process.