CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A third man has come forward alleging he was sexually abused by the Rev. Michael Pfleger, according to the lawyer for two brothers who publicly accused Pfleger in January.
In a sworn statement, the 59-year-old man said he was 18 when Pfleger molested him in the St. Sabina rectory, lawyer Eugene Hollander said.
According to the Sun-Times, Hollander delivered the man’s affidavit to the Archdiocese of Chicago on Tuesday.
“This man is not filing a lawsuit, and he is not looking for money...However, he came forward, because he wants the Archdiocese to know what kind of priest Father Pfleger really is so it can take appropriate action and remove him from St. Sabina,” Hollander said in a news release Wednesday. “He wants to support the victims who have come forward and the many who have not because of fear of retribution from Father Pfleger and his supporters.”
Pfleger’s attorneys, Michael Monico and James Figliulo, said Wednesday that Pfleger “definitively states” the alleged abuse “did not happen.”
“He never touched this man in any sexual or inappropriate way at any time,” the two attorneys said in an emailed statement to the Sun-Times.
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Hollander said the man attended St. Sabina grammar school and graduated in the mid 1970s. He then attended De La Salle Institute before graduating from Quigley South High School, which has since closed.
The man has lived in the South for many years and works as a truck driver.
According to the Sun-Times, the man and Pfleger met in 1976 or 1977.
The man said he worked at a church summer youth program at St. Sabina after graduating from eighth grade.
He said Pfleger took him to jazz clubs with other adults, and even though he was underage, he “frequently drank alcohol with [Pfleger] at these jazz clubs, in his room at the rectory at St. Sabina and elsewhere.”
According to the Sun-Times, the man said that in the summer of 1979, after smoking marijuana with Pfleger in his room at the rectory, he fell asleep and woke up feeling like Pfleger did something "inappropriate."
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Then two weeks later, the man said he again smoked marijuana in Pfleger’s room and this time "pretended" to fall asleep.
“Mike came up to me and called my name a couple of times to see if I was asleep. I did not move and then Mike grabbed my penis over my clothes. I did not consent for Mike to touch me in such a sexual manner. I then pushed his hand away,” he said in the statement.
The man said he ended his relationship with Pfleger after that, and though he occasionally saw Pfleger while working the summer youth program, the two no longer socialized.
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Pfleger, who has denied the accusations, has been temporarily removed from the church. The St. Sabina community has demanded Pfleger be returned to the parish.
(WBBM Newsradio and the Chicago Sun-Times contributed to this copy.)