Ex-Sox clubhouse chief accused of abuse

BOSTON (AP) - Two more men are accusing a now-dead former Red Sox clubhouse manager of sexually abusing them and are asking for $5 million settlements, their lawyer said Monday.

Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian said he sent the Red Sox a letter last month informing them of the new allegations against Donald Fitzpatrick.

Both men, now in their 30s, were teenage clubhouse attendants in 1991 when they say Fitzpatrick molested them in the Fenway Park clubhouse. Fitzpatrick died in 2005. The statute of limitations has expired to file a lawsuit or seek criminal charges.

In 2003, the team settled a lawsuit with seven Florida men who said Fitzpatrick molested them during spring training beginning in the 1970s. In 2002, Fitzpatrick pleaded guilty in Florida to four counts of attempted sexual battery on a child under 12. He received a 10-year suspended sentence and 15 years of probation.

Garabedian, a prominent victims' attorney in the Catholic priest-abuse scandal, said both men decided to come forward after sexual abuse allegations were made against former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky and after U.S. Sen. Scott Brown's revelation that he was molested by a counselor at a summer camp when he was 10.

"I'm asking the Red Sox to do the correct moral thing," said Garabedian, who represented hundreds of victims during the clergy sexual abuse scandal in Boston.

Garabedian said team lawyers have asked to meet with his clients. Red Sox attorney Daniel Goldberg did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday.

In a statement given to The Boston Globe, which first reported the new allegations, Goldberg said the Red Sox "have always viewed the actions of Mr. Fitzpatrick to be abhorrent."

"When the team, then under a previous ownership group, became aware of the allegations against Mr. Fitzpatrick in 1991, he was promptly relieved of his duties," Goldberg said. He said the club does not have any specifics regarding the two recent allegations.

The allegations are believed to be the first time that Fitzpatrick has been accused of molesting boys in the Red Sox clubhouse at Fenway, Garabedian said.

One of the men, Charles Crawford, has agreed to go public with his name "as part of the healing process," Garabedian said. Crawford was expected to speak to reporters at a Monday morning news conference.

Garabedian said Crawford alleges that Fitzpatrick raped him twice in the team's clubhouse when he was 16.

He said Crawford's life went downhill after the abuse. He has had trouble holding jobs and has fathered five children with five women, Garabedian said.

"What he thought was the best of all worlds by working with the Red Sox was eclipsed by the worst of all worlds when he was sexually molested by Donald Fitzpatrick," Garabedian said. "In his mind, he's always been running. He's always been not good enough, he's always had problems with trust and self-esteem."

The second man, who does not wish to be named, is an educator and now is married with children, Garabedian said.

He was traveling with the Red Sox in Anaheim, Calif., when another clubhouse attendant held a sign during a televised game that said, "Donald Fitzpatrick sexually assaulted me."

Team officials said then that Fitzpatrick decided to take an indefinite leave of absence. He did not return to work for the team.

The second alleged victim told the Globe that after the Anaheim incident, he waited for team officials to ask him and other teenage attendants if Fitzpatrick had ever behaved inappropriately with them.

"No one from the team pulled us aside afterward and said, `I just want to make sure you're OK,"' he said.