$2M Settlement Reached In Rape Claim Against Ex-Providence President McGrath

NEW LENOX, IL — Providence Catholic High School and the religious order that runs the school will pay out $2 million to a former student who alleged he was raped by a priest at the school.

The Augustinian Catholic religious order and the school reached the settlement last week, as a trial in the lawsuit against the embattled Rev. Richard McGrath loomed. Former student Robert Krankvich alleged in 2017 that McGrath had raped him when he was a teen.

Patch has contacted Krankvich's lawyer for a statement. Patch has also contacted the Diocese of Joliet—under which the school operates—for a response to the settlement. The Diocese declined to comment, noting it was not a party named in the lawsuit.

Krankvich came forward with his claims against McGrath after another student reported she had witnessed the priest viewing child pornography on his cell phone—a device that McGrath never handed over to investigators and which has never surfaced.

The child pornography allegations spurred an investigation and McGrath's abrupt departure from the school, where he had served as president and/or principal since the mid-1980s. Police also investigated Krankvich's claims.

Krankvich has said he was 13–14 years old at the time of the abuse in 1995-1996, Patch previously reported. At the time, McGrath would have been 50 years old, and had been counseling Krankvich regarding the teenager's personal problems.

The counseling sessions occurred inside McGrath's office at the school, Krankvich said. On other occasions, he said he visited Fr. McGrath inside the Providence friary. "I just felt special," Krankvich told reporters at a press conference in 2018.

He went on to allege that McGrath had forced him to perform sexual acts including anal and oral sex, Krankvich's attorneys detailed. The trauma caused Krankvich to question his sexual identity, he said, also leading to suicide attempts in his 20s.

In addition to Krankvich's claims, McGrath was previously investigated on allegations of child pornography, after a female student allegedly told an adult that she had seen McGrath viewing a photo of a naked boy on his phone while attending a wrestling match at the school. That investigation hit a wall when authorities said McGrath refused to cooperate with a New Lenox Police investigation, and declined to hand over the cell phone.

McGrath had retained a private criminal defense attorney at the time, and that attorney informed the New Lenox Police that "he does not think that phone will surface or ever turn up." It never has.

"Our burden of proof (in criminal court) is quite high," then-New Lenox Police Chief Bob Sterba said in 2018. "Unfortunately, all of the evidence that would have been found was on his phone, and we had insufficient evidence to obtain a search warrant."

The investigation was squashed. Krankvich later filed a lawsuit against the school and Augustinian Order.

The lawsuit filed by Jeff Anderson & Associates states that Krankvich "developed great admiration, trust, reverence and respect for Defendants and their agents, including Fr. McGrath," adding, "Fr. McGrath took advantage of the admiration, trust, reverence and respect that Plaintiff had for him and the Roman Catholic Church and sexually abused Plaintiff on multiple occasions between approximately 1995 and 1996 when Plaintiff was approximately 13 to 15 years old."

Krankvich left the school following the abuse, told by McGrath to keep quiet about the incidents and their relationship, he said. He went on to join the United States Marine Corps, in which he served for four years. The impact of the abuse lingered, leading to decades of mental health trauma and substance abuse, Krankvich has told reporters.

"I had questioned my sexuality for years ... When I got out of the Marines, I should have been this manly man, but then inside, I was feeling a child, like I was weak, and I couldn't handle anything and I tried to commit suicide numerous times. The only way I knew how to deal with it was to mask feelings and my hurt with drugs and alcohol."

Accusations against McGrath were numerous, and also detailed in an anonymous letter sent to the school. In that letter, the parent of a student who attended the school between 2006 and 2010 wrote that McGrath had reportedly massaged students' shoulders, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Later, in 2018, another man would call McGrath's successor Rev. John Merkelis, accusing McGrath and one other priest of molesting him. The man ultimately recanted, but the Sun-Times reports that police reports detailed the man said McGrath would enter the boys' locker room, standing and talking with them as they showered. In a deposition, McGrath said he did not recall doing that.

When questioned under oath regarding the child pornography accusation, McGrath invoked his Fifth Amendment right, declining to answer to avoid self-incrimination.

As word spread of the claims against McGrath, he abruptly retired in December 2017, then reportedly moving to a friary in Hyde Park. Months later, he was AWOL from that facility—"unlawfully absent" from the Augustinian Order. A source in 2018 told Patch that McGrath had left the order after conflict surrounding the scandal, because he had felt bullied and unsupported by the order. The friary where he lived has since been listed for sale for $1 million, reports the Sun-Times.

It's unclear where McGrath now resides. The Augustinian order is moving closer to expelling McGrath from its ranks, reports the Sun-Times.