Sexual-abuse lawsuit filed against former Maui pastor

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer

A former altar boy has filed a lawsuit accusing a former Maui pastor and another man of sexually abusing him more than 25 years ago.

Albert C.S.K. Han filed the lawsuit in state Circuit Court yesterday and named as defendants the Rev. Joseph Bukoski III, Dominic Stone and the Fathers of the Sacred Hearts. The lawsuit was filed on Han's behalf by attorneys Kurt Gronau of Colorado and Stephen Goldsmith of Maui.

Bukoski was removed from his position as pastor of Maria Lanakila Church in Lahaina last year after allegations of sexual misconduct with two minors more than 20 years ago were made public. Bukoski lost an appeal of his removal earlier this year when the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith upheld the decision by Honolulu Bishop Francis DiLorenzo.

Stone's status in the Catholic church is not known. Neither he nor Bukoski could be reached for comment yesterday, although Bukoski has denied the earlier charges.

A spokesman for the Honolulu Diocese, which was not named in the lawsuit, referred calls to the head of the Hawai'i Province for the Sacred Hearts, who could not be reached.

In his lawsuit, Han said he was an 11-year-old altar boy and member of St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in Kaimuki in 1977 when he was sexually abused by Stone.

In 1978, Han and Bukoski, then an associate pastor at St. Patrick's, were in a car when Bukoski propositioned the boy and touched him inappropriately, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit also said the Fathers of the Sacred Hearts knew or should have known that Bukoski and Stone had a "dangerous propensity to commit the acts."