BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) - Claims made by a former seminarian have led to an investigation from the Erie County District Attorney's office.
Matthew Bojanowski, who quit seminary in August and publicly called out Bishop Richard Malone for a culture of sexual abuse and cover ups, was reached out to by the district attorney's office and the state attorney general's office shortly after their public comments.
"I can't speak to exactly what they're investigating," Bojanowski's lawyer, Barry Covert, told WBEN. "That's for them to say. We are fully cooperative. They are both interesting in speaking with both Mr. Bojanowski and Father Ryszard Biernat and obtaining some documents. We are fully cooperative and will provide those documents and will certainly cooperate with any interviews or any investigation they're going to conduct."
Kaitlyn Munro, a spokesperson for the DA's office confirmed that claims by Bojanowski are being investigated, but could not comment any further.
Covert said his client is not the target of the investigation.
Bojanowski was about to start his third year at Christ the King Seminary but quit, citing a culture of sexual abuse and cover ups. He claims he was sexually harassed by Father Jeffrey Nowak, and when he went to Bishop Richard Malone, Malone did nothing to address the matter.
"He has reported both the initial sexual harassment and the ongoing retaliation in October 2018, and he believes the diocese has not taken any sufficient actions to clamp down on it," Covert said in August. "He expresses that those are the similar reasons Steven Parisi resigned, and he too needs to step away."