Former Wheeling-Charleston Diocese Bishop Michael Bransfield: “They’re Out To Destroy Me”
Bransfield denies sexual allegations
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WHEELING -- Former Wheeling-Charleston Diocese bishop Michael Bransfield told a Philadelphia newspaper Wednesday that recent allegations portraying him as a "sexual predator" are false and part of a conspiracy by those seeking to "destroy" him.
A lawsuit filed March 22 in Ohio County Circuit Court on behalf of someone identified only as "J.E." alleges years of sexual harassment and abuse against J.E. and others by Bransfield. The alleged victim served as Bransfield's personal altar server and secretary.
"They're all out to destroy me," Bransfield told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "I wasn't even that friendly with this person."
The Inquirer reported Bransfield has been living in Roxborough, a Philadelphia neighborhood, since leaving Wheeling last fall. Bransfield submitted his retirement as bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston in September, just days after his 75th birthday.
Pope Francis immediately accepted Bransfield's retirement, and ordered him out of the state of West Virginia.
Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore has been overseeing the local diocese since that time.
Attempts by The Intelligencer to reach Bransfield since his September removal from office have been unsuccessful.
The 21-page lawsuit cites an incident in 2014, in which an allegedly drunken Bransfield locked himself outside a parish in Charleston. J.E. was phoned to come unlock the doors and let him inside.
As J.E. did so, Bransfield allegedly exposed himself, grabbing the victim and rubbing his body against him.
J.E. said he broke free, and locked himself in a room on the other side of the building until morning, according to the lawsuit.
"It is just totally untrue," Bransfield told the Inquirer. "I was not drunk. … I went to bed on one side of the house, and he went to bed on the other side of the house. Nothing happened."
Bransfield claims his accusers have been conspiring for years to ruin him, the Inquirer reported.
J.E. is listed in the lawsuit as a current resident of Pocahontas County, West Virginia, but was a resident of St. Clairsville when the alleged incidents took place between 2008 and 2014.
The defendants named in the lawsuit are Bransfield, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston and numerous "John Does" associated with the diocese.
Tim Bishop, spokesman for the diocese, has said the diocese does not comment on pending litigation.
The lawsuit alleges Bransfield engaged in sexual harassment under the West Virginia Human Rights Act, and that he had a history of sexual harassment of young males that was known to Diocesan officials.