Murder Haunts Catholic Church

Charges Of Sexual Abuse Reopens An Old Murder Investigation

(CBS)  And at the time of the crime, Lavigne was a respected figure in the community. Carl Croteau says the district attorney told him, "'Where could I get 12 jurors to convict a Catholic priest?'"

For two decades after Danny's murder, Lavigne continued to work quietly in the diocese of Springfield until 1991. That's when men began coming forward to charge that Lavigne had sexually molested them when they were boys. First, a group of five men made the charges. Later, others followed, 43 in all.

Danny's friends, Steve Block and Tom Martin, claimed that the parish priest had a motive for the murder, to hide a dark secret that Danny was threatening to tell.

"He told me that he hated Father Lavigne and he hurt him," says Martin. "And I knew exactly what that meant."

What that meant, Martin charges, was that Lavigne was sexually abusing Danny, just as he had molested Martin and other boys at the church. "He forced me into oral sex on him twice," says Martin, when he was 8.

"He actually invited me over to the rectory to make breakfast. And at that point is when he took the initiative to move me into another room, sexually assault me," adds Block, who says this happened when he was 12. "And told me 'Christ suffered and so should I?' Things like that."

Were they aware that there were other boys being abused?

"The only time that I ever spoke about it was with Steven, and the only thing we ever said to each other was 'Is he doing the same thing to you?'" says Martin. "And the only other person that ever said anything to me about Father Lavigne was Danny Croteau."

Danny's parents say that soon after the murder, three of their other sons admitted that Lavigne had sexually molested them, too. The family did not go public with those allegations at the time. But when some of the other victims did go public years later, Lavigne was charged with criminal sexual abuse. At first, he claimed innocence.

But then, he changed his plea to guilty when he was offered a deal: admit to molesting two boys in return for no jail time, no new prosecutions for sex crimes committed earlier, and 10 years probation, including treatment at Saint Luke’s in Maryland, a hospital specializing in therapy for pedophile priests.

After seven months there, Lavigne returned to the Springfield diocese, where the diocese wrote: “Lavigne would no longer be able to function nor present himself as a priest.” But he was not formally defrocked, despite being listed as a Level 3 sex offender, and designated a high risk to re-offend. He continued to be paid a monthly salary of over $1,000 plus benefits, even as the diocese paid millions of dollars to settle lawsuits filed by his abuse victims.

"You know, I was an altar boy myself, and I never had an inkling that a priest would ever abuse anybody, never mind murder anybody," says Carl Croteau.

The molestation case caused police to look into Danny’s murder again, but they said they still didn’t have enough evidence to bring charges against Lavigne. That didn’t end the outrage in the community, though.

Springfield resident Warren Mason wanted the diocese to take action: "I'm the father of three young, healthy boys. And to see that, I'd look at them and I'd say, 'How could somebody do this to an innocent child?'"

In 2002, Mason took his concerns to his local parish, St. Michael's, located less than five miles from Lavigne’s old church. To his surprise, he found a receptive audience.

"Molestation of children is evil and there's no other name for it," says Sister Mary McGeer. "When we cover it up, it's evil. When people cover it up, the people that are covering it up are evil."

Then, Mason met with the Rev. James Scahill, pastor of St. Michael's, and made a radical proposal: that the congregation withhold from the Springfield diocese the 6 percent contribution that every parish is required to send up to its bishop, until and unless Father Lavigne was defrocked and removed from the diocese payroll.