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"Ex-judge Bradley admits abusing 11-year-old boy By SEAN O'SULLIVAN The News Journal 1/21/2010 A Court of Common Pleas judge who resigned last week has admitted that he sexually abused an 11-year-old boy more than 30 years ago and apologized as part of settling two civil lawsuits that were pending against him. And attorneys representing both plaintiffs against former Judge William C. Bradley Jr. claimed to have made contact with at least 10 other people who were willing to testify in court that the 71-year-old Bradley also molested them as children. Bradley could not be reached for comment and his attorney, Mason Turner, did not return repeated phone calls. Attorneys representing plaintiff Gregory Kelly handed out a statement on the steps of the New Castle County Courthouse today signed by Bradley that reads in part, "On or about the evening of Dec. 28, 1975 and Dec. 29, 1975, while present in my home located in Townsend, Delaware, I molested Gregory Kelly, then age 11, through inappropriate sexual contact. I deeply regret any harm I have caused to Gregory Kelly and his family." Kelly, who now lives in Las Vegas and voluntarily spoke on the record, had demanded the public admission and apology as the terms for dropping his civil action. There also was an undisclosed cash payment to Kelly. But Kelly said he was not "pleased" with this resolution. "I'll be pleased when Judge Bradley is in jail," he said, adding he believes this is "only the beginning" and that more victims are likely to come forward. A second lawsuit against Bradley, filed in Delaware Superior Court, also was settled this week, according to attorney Brian Kent, who represented Kelly and the unnamed "John Doe" plaintiff in the state case. However, Kent said the terms of the Doe settlement were confidential and there was no public admission by Bradley in that case. Kent said that as part of their pre-trial preparation for both lawsuits, they located at least 10 people who claimed to have been victims of childhood sexual abuse by Bradley and were willing to testify in the Doe and Kelly cases. He did not release any of their names and said it would be "up to them" to come forward. Kent said most of the 10 claimed the abuse happened in the 1960s and 1970s - around the same time that Kelly and Doe alleged they were forcibly fondled - before Bradley became a Court of Common Pleas judge in 1976. At least one, however, claimed to have been abused by Bradley in the early 1990s, Kent said. Both Kelly's federal civil lawsuit and Doe's state civil lawsuit were brought under Delaware's Child Victims Act, which suspended the statute of limitations on such lawsuits for two years. That window closed in July 2009. All of those who agreed to testify for Kelly and Doe chose not to file lawsuits or missed the deadline to do so, Kent said. While Bradley resigned from his position on the Court of Common Pleas last week, Kent said that resignation was not required by the settlement. Bradley's letter to the court and Gov. Jack Markell last week, read in part, "Please accept this letter as notice that I will retire from the judiciary at the close of this day, after more than 33 wonder filled years as a member of the Court of Common Pleas of the state of Delaware." According to attorneys, Judge Bradley is not related to Dr. Earl Bradley, the pediatrician who is facing criminal prosecution for sexually abusing his young patients in Sussex County." |
Child Victim's Voice