A former Staten Islander alleges that he was sexually abused for several years beginning when he was a teen in the 1990s by a Roman Catholic priest who served for decades on Staten Island.
Ryan Barry, now a husband and father who lives in Pennsylvania, said in a lawsuit and a recent interview with the Advance/SILive.com that he was preyed upon by the Rev. James Garisto, a former pastor, teacher and school administrator in our borough.
“He robbed me of pretty much my whole childhood and my teenage years,” Barry said of Father Garisto.
Barry sued the Archdiocese of New York and St. Joseph by-the-Sea High School under the Child Victims Act in Manhattan state Supreme Court. Father Garisto is named as his abuser in the filing, and Barry is represented by the Marsh Law Firm and Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala.