Three more accusers have come forward against Edwin Gaynor as sexual abuse allegations against the former teacher and coach at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Scarsdale continue to mount, the Review has learned.
On May 28, the law firm of Lowey Dannenberg, P.C. filed lawsuits on behalf of Gregory Morra and George Orteig who both allege that Gaynor, now 85, molested them when he was an employee of IHM in the 1960s. Another accuser, who is operating under the condition of anonymity, filed a subsequent suit on June 5, bringing the total number of accusers to 17. Both IHM and the Archdiocese of New York are named as co-defendants in each of the 17 cases for their alleged failure to protect students from sexual abuse. The initial lawsuit was filed in November 2019.
The plaintiffs in all three of the recent cases allege that Gaynor used his position as a youth basketball coach to groom them for sexual abuse. Morra—an Eastchester native—served as assistant on the 1966 IHM CYO basketball team when he was 10 years old and claims that Coach Gaynor sexually assaulted him several times during the course of the basketball season, sometimes in front of other players.
“Gaynor would molest Plaintiff Morra in his office before or after games, sometimes there were classmates on the other side of the desk and sometimes Gaynor would molest Morra with no one else present,” the suit reads. “On one occasion, Plaintiff Morra witnessed another classmate getting molested; Morra remembers feeling relieved he was not molested that day.”
The June 5 filing also included an anonymous plaintiff identified as HCVAWCR-DOE who leveled similar allegations against Gaynor and alleged that knowledge of the sexual abuse was widespread among Gaynor’s students and players.
“The fact that his classmates all teased and joked about Gaynor and had names for what Gaynor did was highly confusing. The boys schemed to avoid being the last one left in Gaynor’s office,” the court filing states. “Plaintiff was deeply confused about this open secret and the fact that everyone seemed to know and Gaynor was allowed free rein over the boys with absolute authority over their precious sports teams, gym class, playing times, camp and entire athletic experience.”
Gaynor has already admitted to two of the allegations of sexual abuse, providing written testimony regarding his physical interactions with plaintiffs David Pisula and R.L.
On March 3, the Archdiocese of New York filed to have Gaynor’s admissions stricken from the record, arguing that his testimony should not be admissible evidence in the other 12—at the time—cases.
In the motion, attorneys from the offices of Rivkin Radler LLP argued that including these two admissions of guilt as evidence in the other cases facing Gaynor and his co-defendants were “irrelevant” and “scandalous.”
“This is done for the sole purpose of inflaming and unduly influencing a jury to the detriment of the Defendants,” read the filing.
In a May 18 response to the motion, counsel for the plaintiffs countered that Gaynor’s written testimony was material in establishing a decades-long timeline of abuse by Gaynor that was ignored by his co-defendants.
No ruling on the motion has been reached as of press time.
Due to the COVID-19 shutdown, New York State has extended the deadline to file an otherwise time-barred lawsuit under the Child Victims Act by five months. The window to file a CVA lawsuit will now extend until Jan. 14, 2021
