A long-running civil suit against accused sexual abuser Edwin Gaynor has taken a new turn this week, as court documents reveal that a recent letter written by the former educator to attorneys represent yet another admission of guilt on Gaynor’s part.
On Nov. 9, Barbara Hart—an attorney for Grant & Eisenhofer P.A., the firm that is handling 33 consolidated Child Victims Act cases against Gaynor, the Archdiocese of New York and several local parishes—filed a handwritten letter, purportedly sent by Gaynor on Nov. 3, into the proceedings against the co-defendants.
The hand-written communique, which was mailed from Gaynor’s Ossining address, appears to be an acknowledgment of wrongdoing by the 86-year-old defendant. Gaynor has been accused as a teacher and coach at several local catholic schools—including Immaculate Heart of Mary in Scarsdale and Holy Rosary in Hawthorne—of sexually assaulting underage students over a period of time that stretched from the late 1950s until 1985.
“Because I gave into an affliction of sinful sickness when I did 55 years ago, that does not in anyway define who I am or my moral concern of right and wrong,” Gaynor wrote in the Nov. 3 letter. “I have no idea what causes that, or why it came upon me, but I thank god that it has been totally gone from me for well over 40 years.”
This latest admission corroborates a 2019 letter by Gaynor, in which he also acknowledged that that he had molested two former students-turned-plaintiffs—David Pisula and an anonymous plaintiff who was referred to as “R.L.” in the early stages of the lawsuit—at IHM in the 1960s.
I was not unkind to [Pisula] in a couple instances as claimed,” Gaynor wrote in 2019. “But I was guilty of molestation, as in my report re: R.L.”
Gaynor would go on to dismiss similar claims against him as part of an “avaricious witch hunt,” in a letter he penned on Aug. 5, 2020.
It is unclear at the moment whether these latest admissions by Gaynor will have any effect on the strategy of Gaynor’s co-defendants, which include the Archdiocese, IHM and Holy Rosary.
The Archdiocese and IHM had previously—and unsuccessfully—moved to strike Gaynor’s written letters from the record, arguing that they were prejudicial in nature. In July 2020, they also filed cross-claims against the former coach, arguing that any wrongdoing uncovered during the trial should be laid at the feet of Gaynor alone.
Counsel for the plaintiffs has argued that Gaynor’s continued employment at and relationships with local parishes—even after his replacement, Dan O’Hare, testified under oath that Gaynor was dismissed from IHM in either 1967 or 1968 due to inappropriate contact with a student—show that the Archdiocese demonstrated a blatant lack of disregard for the well-being of students.
Barring any future delays, the lawsuit, which was originally filed in 2019, is scheduled to go to trial next year, with all written and document disclosures to be completed by July 15, 2022, before an official trial date is set.
