Mr. Matthew Maiello
Summary of Abuse Allegations Against Matthew Maiello:
According to media reports, Mr. Matthew Maiello abused both male and female teenagers while he worked in the Diocese of Rockville Centre as the director of the youth ministry at St. Raphael's Roman Catholic Church in East Meadow in the late 1990s. The abuse lasted three years, from 1999 to 2002, and included the repeated rape and sodomy of two 15-year-olds, and he forced them to have sex, while he videotaped some of the encounters.
In 2003, Mr. Maiello pleaded guilty to the statutory rape and sodomy of four teenagers. He served two years in prison. One of the victims testified that Mr. Maiello was violent and gave her marijuana and beer. She said that he had sex with her multiple days a week, as often as four times a day, on gym mats, in closets, on pews, and in the elementary school principal's office. He warned her that he had Mafia connections and threatened to kill her and hurt her family if she told anyone, she said.
"He would always tell me it was God's plan for us to be together," said the woman. "He controlled all of my thoughts - he manipulated me."
"I didn't like what he was doing," she testified, recalling physical pain and bleeding from the abuse. "It made me feel disgusting and dirty," she said. "I felt like he prostituted me."
According to media reports, in April 2007, she and another of the victims filed a civil suit. The jury awarded the two victims a combined $11.4 million in damages.
"The reason for seeking justice in a civil trial was to ensure that the truth finally came out and that this might prevent the abuse from happening to children everywhere," she said.
Mr. Maiello is believed to be living in Connecticut.
Horowitz Law is a law firm representing victims and survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and other clergy in the Diocese of Rockville Centre in New York. If you need a lawyer because you were sexually abused by a priest in New York, contact our office today. In October 2020, the Rockville Centre Diocese filed for federal bankruptcy protection. The Court will resolve all claims of sexual abuse in this process but strict filing deadlines will apply and no late claims will be considered, so contact us today. Our lawyers have decades of experience representing survivors of clergy sexual abuse in New York and nationwide. We can help.
Contact us at 888-283-9922 or adam@adamhorowitzlaw.com to discuss your options today.