The family of Francis X. Gallagher Jr., an investment banker and former law partner at Venable LLP, filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Baltimore that claims the sexual abuse Gallagher suffered as a child at the hands of a Catholic priest eventually led to him fatally overdosing at age 62 last August.
His obituary at the time said a cause of death was not available.
Gallagher was the son of Francis X. Gallagher Sr., the prominent Baltimore attorney who founded the white-shoe firm that is today known as Gallagher, Evelius and Jones LLP. Among the firm’s notable clients is the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore. The firm’s partners have served as the attorney to the archdiocese, including Gallagher Sr.
So intertwined are the law firm and the archdiocese that two of Gallagher’s attorneys — longtime managing partner and Baltimore politico Richard “Rick” Berndt and current partner David Kinkopf — have received papal honors in recognition of their service to the Catholic Church. Cardinal Lawrence Sheehan, who served as the archbishop of Baltimore from 1961 to 1974, presided over Gallagher Sr.’s funeral.
After his father’s sudden death in 1972, Gallagher Jr., then 14, worked as a night receptionist at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, according to the family’s attorney. The lawsuit names Father Mark Haight as Gallagher Jr.’s abuser. According to the Maryland Attorney General’s report on clergy sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Haight took a victim on a camping trip to Assateague Island where he molested him in the tent in front of another seminarian, who said nothing during or afterward.
While the attorney general’s report does not name Gallagher Jr. as Haight’s victim, the family’s attorney said his story is the one in the report. Gallagher Jr. reported the abuse to the Archdiocese of Baltimore in 2002, according to the report.
Haight was ordained in 1976 and spent the rest of his career in the Diocese of Albany, New York. He was removed from the priesthood in 1996, according to the attorney general’s report. The Baltimore archdiocese lists Haight as having been credibly accused of abuse.
Gallagher Jr. attended the Catholic-run Loyola High School, graduating in 1977. During his life, he served on the boards of St. Frances Academy, the Marion Burk Knott Scholarship Foundation and the Loyola Early Learning Center.
He had two children.
