Charleston Diocese priest accused of sexual abuse in civil lawsuit spanning two states

A man sexually assaulted by a priest in Georgia now says it wasn't just one, but two priests who abused him as a child, He claims the second priest was a pastor from the Diocese of Charleston .

Our story starts in Savannah, Georgia. “Everybody I knew was Catholic,” Chris Templeton said, one of five children growing up in Savannah in the 80s.

“I was 4th generation Irish Catholic in Savannah and we lived in a neighborhood right across the street from the church.”

His parents were active in Savannah's St. James Catholic Church and School, a member of the templeton kids attended St. James for 27 straight years.

“There was a six, seven or eight groups of us that all during the summer went to St. James' field and play football, baseball, and basketball. All of a sudden, there was a new priest there that had a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck. He loved coming to watch us,” Templeton said.

A priest named Wayland Brown. The same Savannah priest who is now behind bars in South Carolina, serving 20 years for sexually assaulting children, but not before he met 13-year-old Templeton.

“That’s how it all started. [Brown] would take me to the convenience store and buy us icees, candy, stuff like that, until it led into the abuse.”

Abuse that spilled across the South Carolina state line, according to indictments.

“I was raped in South Carolina so many times.”

Templeton says he has only regained memory of the abuse in the past four years. In a civil lawsuit, he claims another Charleston priest was involved in the abuse with Brown, Father Raymond DuMouchel.

“All I could think of was a guy, this Father Ray, Father Ray,” Templeton recalled. DuMonchel was the pastor at St. Anthony's Mission Church in Hardeeville, part of the Charleton Catholic Diocese.

“I was raped numerous times between Ray DuMouchel and Wayland Brown," Templeton says. "Over 60 times."

According to the Charleston Diocese, it became aware of inappropriate conduct by Father DuMouchel in November 2002, after he retired. The Diocese suspended him from the ministry.

At one point, DuMouchel faced fondling charges. Prosecutors dropped them, and he died in 2006.

“What makes Chris’ case unique [...] was the depth of the deceit with regard to Wayland Brown's abuse of children,” says Mark Tate, Templeton’s lawyer.

“Can you ever make up for the loss of your youth? Can you ever make up for the loss of innocence? You can't do that. And we can't wave a magic wand and go back and make things better. But, we can try to win a verdict for him."

The Diocese of Charleston filed its answer in the Templeton case on Monday morning, when it said it will continue to address this lawsuit in court.

“We have offered Mr. Templeton professional counseling services and pastoral care through his (South Carolina) attorney, Mr. Gregg Meyers,” the diocese said in a statement.

Raised in a large Catholic family in Savannah, Chris Templeton chose to stay in the city he loved. But Templeton believes there were more victims that have not come forward, who could no longer bear the reminder and moved away.

Are there more Chris Templetons out there? He believes so:

“There's a bunch, [who] probably want to die, but don’t know how to kill themselves. They don’t want to get out of bed everyday, or they are getting high, or they are in prison or getting drunk every day. They are sad, they are lonely, and they are shameful. Shame and guilt will destroy you, and there is a lot of that involved when you are raped as a child.”

Templeton says he now wonders about the boys at his small parochial school. He says he knows of four or five boys within a grade or two who committed suicide. Too many, and he wants to know why.

If anyone has information about other or similar crimes, they're asked to call the District Attorney's Office in Chatham County, Georgia at 912-652-8080.