Accounts of plying boys with alcohol, showing them pornography and then molesting them are among the allegations detailed in the lawsuits against two former priests and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orlando.A third priest actively preaching in an Ocala parish also is accused of raping a boy nearly 35 years ago in Lakeland.
Although the victim in that case has not filed a lawsuit against the Ocala priest, Diocese officials deny the claims, calling them "inflammatory" and "totally false."
"It is possible the person is a victim of abuse, but not by [the Ocala priest]," Diocese spokeswoman Carol Brinati said.
In the past five years, officials at the Diocese of Orlando have been served with 14 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of altar boys and other children at the hands of its clergymen. The Diocese settled several of those suits, paying victims more than $5 million.
The victim in the suit against Vernon F. Uhran is asking for more than $25 million in damages. The suit against Richard A. Emerson seeks more than $15,000 from the Diocese. Both lawsuits were filed in Orange County during the past two weeks.
Uhran, a former priest at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church in Altamonte Springs, is accused of giving the victim alcohol on a "spiritual retreat" to a beach in 1970 and then molesting him, according to the suit. The victim was 14 at the time.
Diocese records show Uhran had preached in at least six Central Florida parishes and Catholic schools since 1969. Multiple allegations of sexual abuse of minors forced former Bishop Norbert Dorsey to remove him from the ministry in 1992.
Uhran already has cost the Diocese at least $1 million in out-of-court settlements. His last known residence was Hermitage, Tenn. He could not be reached for comment.
Court records released by Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests — a national organization that tracks abuse — show that Uhran asserted his Fifth Amendment privilege nearly 90 times in a videotaped deposition dated Aug. 8, 2008.
The lawsuit against Emerson claims he abused the victim while he preached at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Orlando in the late 1980s. It alleges he also gave his victim alcohol and then showed him pornographic photos and films before sexually molesting him.
"We are continuing to investigate these accusations," Brinati said. "We pray for all those involved in this situation."
Emerson resigned from the church in 2006. He had been serving as a priest in the Diocese of Gary in Indiana.
The man accusing the Ocala priest of raping him when he was a 12-year-old filed a police report with the Lakeland Police Department in January.
According to the police report, the victim, now 46, said the priest raped him in an office behind the Lakeland church's altar. The victim never spoke of the incident until he enrolled in a drug rehabilitation program.
"The person did not want to pursue the complaint. He said it was only for documentary purposes," Lakeland police spokesman Sgt. Gary Gross said.
"There was no need to investigate or interview the priest."
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