Chicago-area man claims former head of home for troubled kids sexually abused him

After six years as a ward of the state, Clarence George Jr. arrived at Maryville Academy in Des Plaines, and thought perhaps he’d finally found a place where he could feel at home.

And the then-11-year-old had found a friend in the Rev. John P. Smyth, who ran the Catholic Church academy, a home for troubled kids.

“His approach was very soft-spoken ... ,” George, now 29, recalled Tuesday. “It was very easy for me at the time to deem him someone I could trust, someone I could talk to and confide in.”

Instead, Smyth, who died earlier this year, sexually abused George on “multiple occasions” between approximately 2001 and 2004, according to a lawsuit filed this week in the Circuit Court of Cook County.

“Father Smyth took advantage of the admiration, trust, reverence and respect that Clarence had for him and the Roman Catholic Church ...,” according to the suit.

George, talking to reporters downtown Tuesday, said he reported the abuse to another Maryville staff member.

“After the second time it happened, I did tell her and, basically, I wasn’t believed,” George said. “It was like I was doing it to get attention.”

George said he’s coming forward now, in part to try to get answers to why no one listened to him.

Smyth was at one time one of Chicago’s best-known and most respected priests during the decades he ran Maryville. He was renowned for his ability to raise money from the power elite to help fund the facility.

In January, the Archdiocese of Chicago announced that Smyth had been accused of sexual abuse by minors in “the 2002-2003 time period,” and that he had been removed from ministry.

Anne Maselli, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese, on Tuesday declined to comment about the lawsuit. She said the archdiocese’s investigation of Smyth is “ongoing.”

George said he felt “disappointed” when he learned that Smyth had died.

“At the time, I was upset because I felt like that he had got away, in a sense, without being confronted with what it is he had done,” said George.

George, who lives in the Chicago area, said it’s his goal to be a “radio personality.”