The story of the investigation was presented in the 2005 television film starring Ted Danson as Mitchell Garabedian. The film highlighted Mitchell Garabedian’s historic struggle with Father John J. Geoghan and Cardinal Bernard Law, as well as their employers, the Archdiocese of Boston and the Catholic Church.The trailer is below.

Upon becoming an attorney in 1979, Mitchell Garabedian built a general practice around representing individuals. It was not until the mid-1990s that the clergy sexual abuse crisis became the center of Mitchell Garabedian’s practice. While records now publicly available show Catholic clergy in Boston had for decades been sexually abusing children, this was a well-kept secret of the Archdiocese of Boston in 1994. In 1994 Mitchell Garabedian began to meet with parents, victims and survivors who as children had been sexually abused by Father John J. Geoghan.

In 1996, Mitchell Garabedian filed suit against Father Geoghan, a foreshadowing of the massive litigation to follow naming hundreds of Catholic priests and dioceses throughout the United States and ultimately the world. Mitchell Garabedian has successfully represented more than 150 victims or survivors of Father John J. Geoghan.

While Mitchell Garabedian learned of this history he was precluded from revealing the information by a court order the Boston Archdiocese obtained requiring Mitchell Garabedian and his clients not to reveal what they discovered prior to trial. The Boston Globe, with the support of Mitchell Garabedian’s clients, successfully petitioned the court to gain access to the secret documents Mitchell Garabedian had uncovered.

When those documents were released to the Globe and published, for the first time the public saw that the Boston Archdiocese was knowingly reassigning an admitted pedophile priest to unsuspecting parishes. This watershed event revealed that the Catholic hierarchy, including Bernard Cardinal Law, was knowingly reassigning a priest who admitted to being a pedophile.

Litigation that followed revealed this was too often a common practice. Mitchell Garabedian continued to pressure the church.

The book Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church, written by The Boston Globe investigative staff, puts in perspective the secrecy of the abuse scandal and Mitchell Garabedian’s efforts to expose it. Cardinals, bishops, and other Church officials had been covering up for Geoghan for more than three decades.

Before the verdict was issued, Mitchell Garabedian’s 86 clients and the Archdiocese entered into a $10 million settlement. This sum was one of the larger settled cases in the clergy sexual abuse crisis to that point and became a model for other settlements.

Victims and survivors continued to emerge from the secrecy of the clergy sexual abuse cases. In the fall of 2003, Mitchell Garabedian was representing another 120 clients who claimed they had been sexually abused by priests who had worked in the Archdiocese of Boston.<.p>

The 120 victims and survivors in 2003 identified their sexual abusers as being more than 40 different priests. Mitchell Garabedian, along with lawyers representing other victims and survivors of abuse, obtained an $85 million settlement with the Boston Archdiocese.

Mitchell Garabedian’s practice is not limited to victims or survivors of clergy sexual abuse. He represents victims and survivors of sexual abuse of all ages, including adults who were children when they were abused by teachers, coaches, priests, scout leaders, neighbors, relatives, or other adults who abused their trust or authority.

Major settlements include:

• In 2002, Mitchell Garabedian obtained a $10,000,000 settlement for 86 Father Geoghan victims or survivors.
• In 2003, Mitchell Garabedian and other lawyers obtained an $85,000,000 settlement from the Archdiocese of Boston. Mitchell Garabedian represented 120 victims or survivors of the sexual abuse of more than 40 different priests.
• In 2013, Mitchell Garabedian as lead counsel obtained a $12,000,000 settlement for 24 Haitian victims or survivors of the sexual abuse of Douglas Perlitz.
• In 2014, Mitchell Garabedian and other lawyers obtained an $8,000,000 settlement from the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, the Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular, the Diocese of Youngstown, and Bishop McCort Catholic High School, Inc. Mitchell Garabedian represented 33 victims or survivors of the sexual abuse of Brother Stephen Baker.
• In 2019, Mitchell Garabedian as lead counsel obtained a $60,000,000 settlement for 133 Haitian victims or survivors of the sexual abuse of Douglas Perlitz.