If you were an altar boy, a parish kid or a family friend of Father Richard Lavigne, we believe you.

If you were a kid in Easthampton or Holyoke or Springfield or North Adams, or up in Shelburne Falls, any time from 1966 through 1991, and Father Richard Lavigne was around, this page is for you. Here's his record, so you don't have to go hunting for it. He was a priest of the Diocese of Springfield for the whole of those 25 years, seven parishes, 14 of the years at St. Joseph's in Shelburne Falls, until the diocese took him out of public ministry in 1991. He pleaded guilty the next year, June 25, 1992, in Superior Court sitting in Newburyport, to two counts of indecent assault and battery on two boys, and got ten years' probation with the prison term suspended. Laicised in 2003. Died May 21, 2021. And three days later the Hampden County District Attorney said investigators had concluded he killed a 13-year-old altar boy in 1972, and that a murder warrant was being sought the day he died. None of that is ours; it's his. What's ours is being straight with you about a Massachusetts law that's mostly against you today and might not be by January.

WatchingWatching: a bill to end the age-53 rule, open a two-year lookback and repeal the $20,000 charitable cap (S.3141 with House Amendment 110) is in a House-Senate conference; it has to reach the Governor by January 5, 2027.

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This applies to you no matter what

You weren't an altar boy. The two counts he pleaded to in 1992 were, in the Union-News's account of the hearing, a 12-year-old in 1983 or 1984 and a 15-year-old altar boy in 1987 or 1988, and the diocese's own list puts his conduct across 1966 to 1990. Serving Mass was never the test.
It was Shelburne Falls in the '80s, or one of the two missions, Colrain or Charlemont. That's the one cohort that's inside the Massachusetts age rule today, and it's the whole reason the questions ask your birth year.
It was Springfield in the early '70s and you've assumed you're decades past any deadline. On today's law you mostly are, if you were born before 1974. The deadline section says why, and what's sitting in a conference committee that would change it.
You already settled, the way 17 people did in 1994 and 46 more did in 2004. A release is a real thing, and a lawyer reads it before anyone tells you what it means. Don't assume.
You live in Vermont, New Hampshire, upstate New York, anywhere. The case would sit in Massachusetts and you wouldn't have to.

Lavigne's record: the plea, the settlements, the diocese's findings and the District Attorney's announcement, in order

None of this is ours. The plea is his, in an Essex County courtroom in 1992. The settlements were the diocese's to make. The credible findings are the diocese's own, on its own list. The conclusion about the 1972 killing is a prosecutor's, announced at a press conference, and it was never tried. Every line links to where it came from, and where the source is a newspaper we say so.

June 25, 1992

Lavigne pleaded guilty in Superior Court sitting in Newburyport, Essex County, the case having been moved out of Hampden County, before Judge Guy Volterra, to two counts of indecent assault and battery on two boys. Judge Volterra gave him two concurrent ten-year terms of probation, suspended a four-to-six-year prison sentence, ordered seven months to a year at the St. Luke Institute in Maryland, and barred him from working alone with or living with a child under 16. Bishop John Marshall, in the same story, said he was "saddened" and asked for prayers "for the victims and their families, for Father Lavigne and his family." What didn't get tried: six other molestation counts, two counts involving a child over 14 and two rape counts, all dismissed as part of the plea. Union-News (Springfield), June 26, 1992 (BishopAccountability archive).

1994

"In 1994, the Springfield Diocese paid $1.4 million in a series of settlements to 17 alleged victims of the priest" is how the Recorder's former reporter put it, looking back on it in 2021, and nobody's saying a court found anything; a settlement is what the diocese chose to do. That same piece is where the Shelburne Falls years come from, about 14 of them, to 1991, plus the mission churches in Colrain and Charlemont, and it's where a lawyer who'd spent twenty years on Lavigne claims put his own caseload at 40 to 50. Greenfield Recorder, May 25, 2021.

2003

Laicised, involuntarily, twelve years after the diocese removed him from public ministry. The Diocese of Springfield's own list of credibly accused clergy is where the assignment dates on this page come from: seven of them, Sacred Heart of Jesus in Easthampton in 1966 at the start, St. Joseph in Shelburne Falls, 1977 to 1991, at the end, conduct dated 1966 to 1990, and one line that matters, "multiple allegations: yes." That list is the diocese's finding, and the entry is quoted from the copy BishopAccountability holds. Diocese of Springfield credibly-accused list, May 2024 (PDF, BishopAccountability copy).

2004

Forty-six more. That's the Globe's count, reported in 2021: $7.7 million from the diocese to 46 people who said Lavigne abused them, on top of the 17 from 1994. The same story has a law-enforcement estimate, more than 250 people molested between the 1960s and the 1990s, and we'd flag that it's an investigator's estimate, not a count of claims. And it has Bishop William Byrne, on the day of the District Attorney's announcement: "I was angered and sickened to hear Lavigne's unapologetic admissions in the heinous murder of this innocent child." Boston Globe, May 24, 2021.

November 2008

A second diocesan round: $4.5 million to 59 plaintiffs across the Diocese of Springfield, not Lavigne's alone. Recorded on BishopAccountability's page for the diocese, from the diocese's own press release. Past resolutions, both of them; nothing about them says what any claim is worth today, and the deadline section explains why. BishopAccountability, Diocese of Springfield.

May 24, 2021

Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni announced that investigators had concluded Lavigne killed Danny Croteau, a 13-year-old altar boy, in 1972, and that he had authorised them to seek an arrest warrant for murder; Lavigne died on Friday, May 21, at 80, in a medical facility, before it was served. "Based on the accumulation of evidence, and in particular those admissions, as a prosecutor I believe that I was fulfilling my ethical duties by moving toward the charge of murder against Richard Lavigne." No charge was filed. No jury heard it. It's a prosecutor's conclusion, and we print it as that. The same story records the 1992 plea and ten years' probation, and that he was defrocked. WBUR, May 24, 2021.

October 31, 2023

New credible findings, announced two and a half years after he died, and the diocese wouldn't say what they were, only that "Out of respect for the privacy of the survivor, no further details will be released at this time," which is its spokesman talking. The Recorder's story, the one that carries that line, is also where the 1991 arrest is: he was at St. Joseph's in Shelburne Falls when he was arrested, after Springfield, St. Catherine of Siena in 1967 and St. Mary's in 1968, and the 1994 number the paper repeats is the same $1.4 million and 17 complaints. Greenfield Recorder, November 3, 2023.

September 16, 2026

This one is still moving, and it's the reason the page is up. A House-Senate conference committee is meeting on a bill that would end the civil statute of limitations for child sexual abuse, open a two-year window for claims that are barred today, and remove the $20,000 cap Massachusetts puts on a charity's liability. The House passed its version unanimously. It has to reach the Governor by January 5, 2027. WCVB, via BishopAccountability.

We checked this on September 22, 2026, and the newest thing in it is from September 16, 2026. When something new gets filed or decided, it goes in here within 72 hours, with the link.

Who can be held responsible for Richard Lavigne

Lavigne is dead, so there's one defendant left, and it's the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield. Not Boston. People mix them up because Boston is the name everyone knows, but Easthampton, Holyoke, Springfield, Palmer, North Adams and Shelburne Falls are all Springfield's four counties, Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin and Berkshire, and it was the Springfield diocese that assigned him for 25 years and the Springfield diocese that paid in 1994 and 2004. Boston got an Attorney General's report. Springfield never did, so there's no public finding we can hand you about what the diocese knew, or when it knew it. What exists is thinner. The diocese's own list, with him on it, multiple allegations, 1966 to 1990. Its removal of him from public ministry in 1991. The settlements it chose to pay. A claim against the diocese comes down to this: the people who kept assigning him knew, or should have known, and assigned him anyway. What they knew is a question for discovery in a lawsuit, not for a landing page.

Now the hard part, and you should hear it here rather than from a lawyer who doesn't call back. The diocese is a charity under Massachusetts law, and G.L. c.231 §85K caps what a charity can be made to pay on a tort claim at $20,000. Twenty thousand. Per case. The $1.4 million in 1994, the $7.7 million in 2004 and the $4.5 million in 2008 were settlements the diocese chose, not judgments a court forced on it. Nobody on this page will promise you a figure, and anyone who does is guessing. What's on the table in the State House right now is a repeal of that cap for institutions that enabled the abuse. That, more than anything about your dates, is what the watching is for.

Your deadline: the Massachusetts statute of limitations for a Lavigne claim

Until you turn 53, or seven years from the day you connected what happened to what it did to you, whichever comes later. That's Massachusetts today for a claim against the man himself, G.L. c.260 §4C: 35 years from your 18th birthday, or the discovery rule. It's why the questions ask whether you were born in 1974 or later. If you were, you're inside it on age alone; for Lavigne that's mostly the Shelburne Falls years. Born in 1973, it comes down to which month. Born earlier, Springfield in the '70s, Easthampton in '66, and it turns on discovery, which is a conversation with a lawyer, not a date you look up.

The claim you'd actually bring is against the diocese, not Lavigne, and that runs under a different section, c.260 §4C½, added in 2014 with the same shape: 53, or seven years from discovery. Whether that section reaches abuse from before 2014, which is all of Lavigne's, is contested, and the courts haven't settled it. We won't pretend they have.

And then there's the bill. Everything above assumes it hasn't passed. If it does, if it's on the Governor's desk by January 5, 2027 and signed, the age limit is gone, there's a two-year window for claims that are barred today, and the $20,000 cap comes off institutions that enabled abuse. Until then, plainly: born 1974 or later, the door is open. Born earlier, it may be. A lawyer reads your dates.

Your situation still qualifies even if

You never told a soul. Or your parents told the rectory, or the chancery in Springfield, and nothing came of it.
You settled, in 1994 or 2004, and signed something. Bring it. A release is read, not assumed.
It didn't happen in a church. A trip, the rectory, a car, a camp. The two counts he pleaded to don't say 'church' either.
You loved him, or your parents did. He was in people's kitchens for 25 years. That's the pattern, not a reason to doubt yourself.
You're not sure it counts. That's a lawyer's call, not yours, and the call is free.

The seven parishes

Seven parishes, and the names and dates here are the diocese's own list as of May 2024. He started at Sacred Heart of Jesus in Easthampton in 1966, was at Precious Blood in Holyoke by 1967, then Springfield twice, St. Catherine of Siena until 1968 and St. Mary's for the eight years after that, up to 1976, then a year in North Adams at St. Francis of Assisi, 1977 in Palmer at St. Thomas the Apostle, and from 1977 to 1991 St. Joseph's in Shelburne Falls, with the mission churches in Colrain and Charlemont. Fourteen years in one town; if you're from there you already know that. We don't have a Diocese of Springfield page yet. The Archdiocese of Boston page we have is a different diocese, and it doesn't cover him. Somewhere not on this list? Pick 'somewhere else' in the first question and say where.

Questions people are asking

Was Richard Lavigne ever convicted?

He pleaded guilty. On June 25, 1992, in Superior Court sitting in Newburyport, to two counts of indecent assault and battery on two boys. Judge Guy Volterra gave him ten years' probation, suspended the prison term and sent him to a treatment institute in Maryland. The other counts in that case, including two rape counts, were dismissed as part of the plea and never tried. Everything else on this page is a civil claim the diocese settled, a finding on the diocese's own list, or the District Attorney's announcement about 1972.

Was he ever charged with murdering the altar boy?

No. He was dead before it got that far. He died May 21, 2021, and it was three days after that, May 24, when the Hampden County District Attorney said investigators had concluded Lavigne killed a 13-year-old altar boy in 1972 and that he'd authorised them to seek a murder warrant, which nobody could serve on a dead man. There was no charge. No jury heard any of it. A prosecutor's conclusion at a press conference is exactly that, and we print it as that. The abuse claims on this page don't depend on it.

Can I sue the Diocese of Springfield if he's dead?

The diocese is who you'd sue; he was never the one paying. This is the diocese that assigned him for 25 years, 1966 to 1991, and that settled twice, with 17 people in 1994 and with 46 in 2004. And it's the Diocese of Springfield. Not Boston, whatever the search results throw at you. Whether you can file today turns on your birth year and the discovery rule, and on what the Legislature does by January 5, 2027.

Is there a deadline in Massachusetts?

Yes, and it's why this page is 'watching' rather than active. Against the man himself the clock runs to your 53rd birthday, or seven years past the day you connected what happened to the harm, whichever is later. Against the diocese it's a 2014 section with the same shape, and whether it reaches abuse from before 2014 is not settled. Born in 1974 or later and you're inside on age alone. A bill in conference would wipe the age limit and open a two-year window; it has until January 5, 2027. A lawyer reads your dates, and that's the whole call.

What's this $20,000 cap people keep mentioning?

Massachusetts law, G.L. c.231 §85K, limits what a charity can be made to pay on a tort claim to $20,000 when the harm happened in the course of its charitable work. The diocese is a charity. The settlements it has paid were higher because it chose to pay them, not because a court made it. The bill in conference would lift the cap for institutions that enabled the abuse. Until it passes, nobody honest will promise you a figure.

What does it cost?

Nothing. Every case is on contingency. There is no charge for the call, the review, or the case. The firm is paid only out of a recovery, and if there is no recovery you owe nothing.

Who sees your form

Kerim Eravci · Survivor Advocate · Not a lawyer

I was a victim, and I waited. Not because I didn't know what happened to me (I knew every day), but because I'd decided it was over, mine to carry, nobody's business. When I finally went looking for a lawyer, the answer came back in two words I'd never thought about: statute of limitations. My time had run out while I was busy getting through it.

What that has cost me since is a long story, and I'll tell you the whole thing in private, if you want it. The short version is the reason my name is on this page: I'm here to help people do what I wish I'd done, which is find out where you stand while the door's still open.

I'm not a lawyer. I read what you send, I call you once, on your terms, and nothing gets filed unless you say so. Ask sooner than I did.

Kerim Eravci is not an attorney. He's a survivor.

What happens next. Three steps, nothing more until you say so.

You answer 5 questions. Nothing is filed. Nothing starts.
A survivor calls you, once. Not a robot, not a call center. Someone who has been where you are.
You decide. You find out your options. If you want to stop there, you stop there.

How this works

ME2 Survivors Alliance protects the heart. Licensed MA attorneys do the legal work. We are not lawyers and we don't pretend to be.

You never pay a dollar

Every case is on contingency. There is no charge for the call, the review, or the case. The firm is paid only out of a recovery, and if there is no recovery you owe nothing.