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Judge Attaches Seymour Priest's Assets; Cites 'Overwhelming' Evidence to Back Sex Abuse Claim

A Superior Court judge ruled this week that a city man’s sex abuse case against a Seymour priest was persuasive enough to warrant attaching $10 million of the priest’s assets.

“There was more than adequate evidence to support the plaintiff’s claim that (the Rev. Stephen) Bzdyra sexually abused him when he was a young boy,” Justice Robert Berdon wrote Tuesday in a memo of decision on request for prejudgment remedy. “The court finds that the testimony of the plaintiff was credible and overwhelming.”

Berdon notes in the memo that the plaintiff, William Dotson, 34, of New Haven, was examined by a neuropsychologist, who concluded that Dotson is in “an acute state of emotional turmoil” and “requires treatment intervention that includes psychotropic medication and psychotherapy treatment.”

Dotson filed a lawsuit in July, claiming Bzdyra sexually molested him when he was an altar boy in the 1980s at St. Francis Church in New Haven, and later at St. Hedwig Church in Naugatuck. A second man, who wished to remain anonymous, filed a lawsuit a month later, claiming he, too, was sexually abused by Bzdyra in the late 1970s at St. Hedwig, where he was a parochial student.

Bzdyra, who most recently served at St. Augustine Church in Seymour, was placed on leave by the Archdiocese of Hartford after the first lawsuit was filed.

Dotson’s attorney, Joel Faxon of New Haven, said Thursday that the judge’s ruling means that “all of Bzdyra’s assets are now going to be attached. His home is attached, his paycheck is attached. His savings are attached. Anything the man owns is now attached, meaning it can’t be sold, it can’t be disposed of, until the case is over.”

Attorney Hugh F. Keefe of New Haven, who represents Bzdyra, called the decision “meaningless” because Bzdyra doesn’t have anywhere close to $10 million in assets. “This is not a big deal at all. It’s simply a finding of probable cause by one referee,” Keefe said. He said he fully expects the case to go to trial, and that Bzdyra has denied all the charges against him.

Asked about a possible settlement, Faxon said, “We haven’t been approached by the diocese, but, in the past, they have resolved virtually all the cases that have been brought by priest abuse. Particularly the cases where you have a hearing like this and the judge finds that the case is valid and that the child was attacked.”

If the case isn’t settled, it will likely go to a jury trial in late 2011 or early 2012, Faxon said. Faxon said he’s spoken to several other people who say they were abused by Bzdyra, but none are prepared to come forward with a lawsuit.

Maria Zone, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Hartford, declined to comment since the case is pending. “This attachment is between the plaintiff and Father Bzdyra on his personal assets,” she said.