IT’S been a bad month for West Virginia’s former Bishop Michael Bransfield, above.



First, he and and and the Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston were hit by a lawsuit brought by the state’s Attorney General, alleging violations of consumer laws, then Bransfield’s former personal altar server sued Bransfield and the diocese, alleging that he was sexually assaulted in 2014 and harassed for years prior by the bishop, who retired last year amidst allegation of sexual misconduct.

In the lawsuit, the alleged victim described his former boss as a “sexual predator” prone to binge-drinking orange liqueur and venting his lust on priests and seminarians.

The plaintiff, a onetime seminarian in his early 20s identified in court filings by the initials J E, says that Bransfield exposed his penis and groped him while they were traveling together on church business in 2014.

The suit alleges that the bishop drank up to a bottle of 80-proof, orange-flavoured Cointreau per night and would then drunkenly hug, kiss and groped any seminarian within his reach.

The lawsuit says:

Bishop Bransfield was a sexual predator with a lustful disposition. After being placed in a position of trust by [the church, he] sexually abused, molested, fondled and assaulted J E and other adolescent and ‘adult’ males.

According to the lawsuit, J E first caught Bransfield’s eye in 2008, when the bishop had the teen assigned to be his personal altar server at St Joseph’s Cathedral in Wheeling.

Later, Bransfield selected the seminarian to serve as his personal secretary and sought to have him moved full-time into his residence – a step the lawsuit claims was blocked by a diocesan official in Wheeling who was concerned about the bishop’s alleged proclivities for young men.

For J E, the situation came to a head during the 2014 church trip to Charleston, West Virginia. Bransfield stumbled home drunk after celebrating Mass one night and locked himself out of the parish where they were staying, the lawsuit claims. When J E went to let him in, the bishop allegedly grabbed him, exposed his penis and then began rubbing his hands on the young man’s chest and genitals.

The suit states:

J E struggled free of Bishop Bransfield’s grasp, ran into another part of the parish and locked himself in his room until daylight. He was mortified and emotionally traumatized by the attack. The following morning Bishop Bransfield acted as if nothing had happened.

J E’s attorney Bobby Warner said his client left the church soon after that incident and had been too afraid to speak out until recently.

The lawsuit marks the first time any of the bishop’s accusers have publicly offered an account of the type of alleged misconduct that led the Vatican to oust Bransfield, 75, from his position last year.

But in an interview Wednesday, the retired prelate dismissed the man’s claims – and those of his other accusers – as nothing more than a money grab.

They’re all out to destroy me. I wasn’t even that friendly with this person.

Since his resignation last September, Bransfield has been beset by a growing list of legal problems, including the lawsuit filed by West Virginia’s Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.

He was previously accused of abusing a minor during his time as a priest in Philadelphia – a claim Bransfield denied. Both prosecutors and the archdiocese reviewed the allegation; neither ultimately took action against him.