’90s Red Sox sexual abuse case rekindled

2 men seek $10m, accuse late clubhouse manager

December 05, 2011|By Bob Hohler, Globe Staff

Clubhouse manager Donald Fitzpatrick, who died in 2005, pleaded guilty… (The Boston Globe/File )

On Aug. 22, 1991, Sox clubhouse manager Donald Fitzpatrick asked 16-year-old Charles Crawford to report early from his Dorchester home to Fenway Park.

Crawford, a student at St. Sebastian’s School in Needham, treasured his summer job with the Sox. He rubbed elbows with some of the franchise’s greatest players: Roger Clemens, Wade Boggs, Ted Williams.

Crawford said he arrived early that day to help pack for the team’s departure for the West Coast. That night, he alleges, Fitzpatrick sexually assaulted him in the clubhouse restroom.

His accusation - and that of a second man who, like Crawford, was a teenage clubhouse attendant in the 1990s - is the latest chapter in a sex abuse scandal many believed had been relegated to the Red Sox’s past. The allegations mark the first time that Fitzpatrick is accused of assaulting boys in the Sox clubhouse - other cases involved spring training - and come at a time of heightened awareness of the issue in the sports world.

The men notified Sox executives last week they are seeking $5 million each in damages. They said there were no witnesses to their alleged abuse, and they did not discuss it with each other until recently. Medical records show Crawford reported the alleged abuse to Norwood Hospital counselor in 2006. Fitzpatrick died in 2005 at age 76.

The Globe does not identify alleged victims of sexual abuse, but Crawford consented to go public. He maintains the Sox were at fault. “I’ve held one of Boston’s darkest secrets all these years, knowing people would have been blown out of their seats if they knew what the Red Sox let happen to me,’’ he said.

Sox officials responded: “The Red Sox have always viewed the actions of Mr. Fitzpatrick to be abhorrent,’’ the club’s legal counsel, Daniel Goldberg, said in a prepared statement. “When the team, then under a previous ownership group, became aware of the allegations against Mr. Fitzpatrick in 1991, he was promptly relieved of his duties.

“The club is unaware of any specifics regarding the matters brought forward recently by two individuals,’’ Goldberg said, adding that the team would not comment further.

Crawford and his friend, who asked not to be identified, are the ninth and 10th former Sox clubhouse attendants - and the first from Boston - to publicly accuse Fitzpatrick of sexual abuse.

In 2003, the team settled a $3.15 million lawsuit with seven Florida men who alleged Fitzpatrick molested them during spring training beginning in the early 1970s. Fitzpatrick pleaded guilty in 2002 in Florida to four counts of attempted sexual battery related to the case.