Ron Cassie, The Examiner
2007-06-25 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

BALTIMORE -

The former admissions director of a Baltimore County Catholic all-girls high school filed a $14 million civil lawsuit, alleging an affair with a priest that led to her termination.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore, Mount De Sales Academy and the Rev. Timothy Fell, 38, who is an associate pastor at St. Agnes church, are named in the lawsuit filed by Charyl Breidenstein, an Ellicott City mother of three.

She claims defamation, battery, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud and intentional infliction of emotional distress, among nine counts of wrongdoing in the lawsuit filed Friday for compensatory and punitive damages. Charyl Breidenstein is represented by Joanne Suder of Baltimore.

Breidenstein, admissions director at Mount de Sales for five years, was terminated early last fall after she revealed the alleged yearlong affair with Fell to her husband.

The school’s attorney denied she was fired because of the controversy.

Archdiocese spokesman Sean Caine, who could not be reached for comment Sunday, has said Fell denied the affair.

The archdiocese asked Fell, who taught religion and served as school chaplain, to resign in October after a second woman made similar allegations of a previous affair.

Church officials said Fell was asked to step down out of concern for the Breidensteins’ daughter at the school.

Fell, a former family friend of the Breidensteins, violated his duty as a counselor, had a sexual relationship with Breidenstein, lied about the relationship and “made false and defamatory” statements about Breidenstein to family, friends and employers, which harmed her standing and reputation at the school and in the community, according to the lawsuit.

Fell used confessions or private conversations to gather information about Mount de Sales girls’ personal lives and others’ lives and discussed their physical attributes and sexual experiences, all of which he shared with Breidenstein, the lawsuit states.

Two women from a local fitness center where Fell worked out called the priest’s supervisor to complain of his inappropriate behavior.

The school librarian notified the principal that Fell solicited private sexual information from and about the students.

A former de Sales employee, before Breidenstein’s relationship, wrote a letter of complaint about Fell’s alleged inappropriate behavior.

And a nun at de Sales told Fell and the principal she suspected an inappropriate relationship existed with Breidenstein, according to the lawsuit.