Priest Assignment Records and Case Details Released

The Law Offices of Mitchell Garabedian has obtained settlements or arbitration awards for many victims and survivors who suffered sexual abuse by clergy or church personnel. The list can be found at at www.garabedianlaw.com/results-list. 

The firm added:

Detailed information on the assignment records and claim history of these abusers, together with sources, can be accessed by reading below as well as in the pdfs lnked above.

Please check back regularly as additional information is planned for release.

Father Edward Shoback – Diocese of Scranton

Assignment Record:

DatesAssignment
Approx. 1967 Ordained in the Diocese of Scranton
1967 St. Ann Church, Shohola, PA
1967 – 1968 St. Stephen Church, Plymouth, PA
1968 – 1970 Holy Rosary Church, Ashley, PA
1970 – 1974 St. Therese Church, Wilkes-Barre, PA
1974 – 1980 St. Aloysius Church, Wilkes-Barre, PA
1980 – 1987 St. John Nepomucene Church, Luzerne, PA
1987 – 1989 Transfiguration Church, West Hazleton, PA
1989 – 2004 Ss. Peter and Paul Church, Scranton, PA
Sources:
  • Report I of the 40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury, released by the Office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General, dated July 27, 2018; and
  • The Official Catholic Directory, Kenedy & Sons

According to the Grand Jury report, the Diocese of Scranton removed Father Shoback from active ministry in 2004 and dismissed Father Shoback from the clerical state in 2009.

Summary:
  • Father Edward Shoback was accused of sexually abusing a male minor child on one occasion in approximately 1975 when the boy was approximately twelve years old. At the time of the sexual abuse, Father Shoback was assigned to St. Aloysius Church in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and the boy served as an altar boy at the church. The incident of sexual abuse took place at a hotel in Hawley, Pennsylvania, on an occasion when Father Shoback took the boy on a trip.
  • The sexual abuse by Father Shoback included the following: Father Shoback pulled down the boy’s pants, exposing the boy’s penis and testicles, and Father Shoback masturbated the boy. During the incident of sexual abuse, Father Shoback pressed his body against the boy’s body such that the boy could feel Father Shoback’s erect penis against the boy’s body over Father Shoback’s clothing.
  • The claim settled in January 2020 in the high five figures.

Father David Soderlund – Diocese of Allentown

Assignment Record:

DatesAssignment
Approx. 1965 Ordained in the Diocese of Allentown
1965 – 1966 St. Peter Church, Coplay, PA
1966 – 1971 Sacred Heart Church, West Reading, PA
1971 – 1973 St. Catharine of Siena Church, Reading, PA
1971 – 1978 Holy Name High School, Reading, PA
1971 – 1978 “Adult Religious Education,” Berks County, PA
1973 – 1974 St. John the Baptist Church, Shillington, PA
1974 – 1978 St. Benedict Church, Reading, PA
1978 – 1980 St. Joseph Church, Summit Hill, PA
1980 “Sick Leave” (at Villa St. John Vianney Hospital)
1980 – 1981 Our Lady of Hungary Church, Northampton, PA
1981 – 1986 St. Catharine of Siena Church, Reading, PA
1986 – 1989 Good Samaritan Hospital (chaplain)
1989 – 2005 “On administrative leave;” whereabouts unknown
Sources:
  • Report I of the 40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury, released by the Office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General, dated July 27, 2018; and
  • The Official Catholic Directory, Kenedy & Sons

According to the Grand Jury report, Father Soderlund was placed on administrative leave by the Diocese of Allentown in 1989 and was officially dismissed from the priesthood in 2005.

Summary:
  • Father David Soderlund was accused of sexually abusing a male minor child on three occasions in approximately 1971 when the boy was approximately twelve years old. At the time of the sexual abuse, Father Soderlund was assigned as a priest of the Diocese of Allentown. Father Soderlund met and befriended the boy through a reading group Father Soderlund created in the Reading, Pennsylvania area. The sexual abuse by Father Soderlund took place during a twoweek camping trip where Father Soderlund took the boy and other minor children.
  • The sexual abuse by Father Soderlund included the following: Father Soderlund fondled the boy’s penis, skin-on-skin, and performed oral sex on the boy. Father Soderlund also made the boy fondle Father Soderlund’s penis, skin-on-skin, and made the boy perform oral sex on Father Soderlund.
  • The claim settled in April 2020 in the low six figures.

Father Leonard Spanburgh – Archdiocese of Newark

Assignment Record:

DatesAssignment
Approx. 1959 Ordained in the Archdiocese of Newark
1960 – 1963 St. Joseph of Palisades Church – West New York, NJ
1964 “Sick Leave”
1965 – 1983 St. Catherine of Siena Church – Cedar Grove, NJ
Source:
  • The Official Catholic Directory, Kenedy & Sons

(The years listed above are the publication years of the Official Catholic Directory. According to the Directory, the assignments provided for a given year are effective as of January 1 of that year. This means that a priest listed in the Directory for a given year at a parish or school was likely at the same assignment for at least part of the previous year as well.)

Father Spanburgh died in 1983.

Summary:
  • Father Leonard Spanburgh was accused of sexually abusing a male minor child on at least eight occasions from approximately 1970 to 1973 when the male child was approximately nine to thirteen years old. At the time of the sexual abuse, Father Spanburgh was assigned to St. Catherine of Siena Church in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, and the male child was an altar boy at
    the church.
  • The sexual abuse by Father Spanburgh included the following: Father Spanburgh provided the boy with alcohol to drink, and then Father Spanburgh fondled the boy’s penis and testicles, skin-on-skin.
  • The claim settled in February 2020 in the high five figures.

Father Francis Stinner – Archdiocese of New York

Assignment Record:

DatesAssignment
Approx. 1967 Ordained in the Archdiocese of New York
1968 – 1972 Immaculate Conception Church, Port Jervis, NY
1973 – 1980 John S. Burke Catholic High School, Goshen, NY
1981 – 1989 John F. Kennedy High School, Somers, NY
1990 Not indexed
1991 – 1997 St. Joseph’s Church, Bronxville, NY
Source:
  • The Official Catholic Directory, Kenedy & Sons

(The years listed above are the publication years of the Official Catholic Directory. According to the Directory, the assignments provided for a given year are effective as of January 1 of that year. This means that a priest listed in the Directory for a given year at a parish or school was likely at the same assignment for at least part of the previous year as well.)

Summary:
  • Father Francis Stinner was accused of sexually abusing a male minor child on at least two occasions in approximately 1972 when the male child was approximately fourteen years old. At the time of the sexual abuse, Father Stinner was assigned to John S. Burke Catholic High School in Goshen, New York, and the boy was a student at the school. The sexual abuse took place in the rectory near St. John Neumann Church.
  • The sexual abuse by Father Stinner included the following: Father Stinner forced the boy to expose the boy’s penis to Father Stinner; and Father Stinner forced the boy to perform oral sex on Father Stinner.
  • The claim settled in February 2020 in the low six figures.
  1. Father John Stonebridge – Diocese of Brooklyn
  2. Father Gerard Sudol – Archdiocese of Newark
  3. Father Bernard L. Sullivan – Archdiocese of Boston
  4. Father John T. Sullivan – Diocese of Manchester, Diocese of Grand Rapids, Diocese of Gallup, Diocese of Phoenix
  5. Father T. Raymond Sullivan – Archdiocese of Boston
  6. Father Patrick J. Tague – Archdiocese of Boston
  7. Father Arthur Taraborelli – Archdiocese of Philadelphia
  8. Father Toribio Villacastin – Archdiocese of Hartford
  9. Father Robert J. Vonnahmen – Diocese of Belleville
  10. Father Michael Wempe – Archdiocese of Los Angeles
  11. Father Michael Weston – Archdiocese of Chicago
  12. Father Harold Robert White – Diocese of Denver
  13. Father Benjamin D. Wysolmerski – Diocese of Burlington
  14. Father Theodore Zabowski – Diocese of Pittsburgh