The family of Frank X. Gallagher Jr. is filing a wrongful death civil suit against the Archdiocese of Baltimore, St. Mary’s Seminary and University and the Society of St. Sulpice Foundation; the first suit brought by victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Baltimore church employees since the Maryland Attorney General released a damning report implicating more than 150 priests in April.

The suit alleges that seminarian Mark Haight abused Gallagher as a teenage boy when he was working as a night receptionist at St. Mary’s Seminary in the mid-1970s. Gallagher confronted the church about the events in 2002, where, the suit says, he was met with denials and apathy toward corrective action.

“In one of his letters, he says 'that the betrayal occurred for him in 1974 [with the abuse], as well as in 2002,'” said Flannery Gallagher, Frank’s daughter, during a Tuesday press conference in Baltimore. “It compounded the devastation that he already felt, especially because the church was failing to help other survivors or engage in other prevention efforts.”

The family is seeking damages for the untimely death of Gallagher in 2022 at the age of 62 from a drug overdose.

There were five known pedophiles working at the seminary while Gallagher worked as a receptionist.

“The defendant had a duty to keep Frank Jr. safe while working at the seminary, yet they allowed him to work at night alone in a place where they knew or should have known that there was a substantially increased risk that he would be sexually abused,” said Christine Dunn partner and co-chair of Sanford Heisler Sharp’s Criminal/Sexual Violence practice, a law firm representing the Gallagher family.

The suit brings up three counts: negligence and gross negligence in wrongful death, fraudulent concealment and negligent hiring/supervision.

Gallagher was the son of Frank X. Gallagher Sr., who ran Gallagher, Evelius and Jones LLP. One of its clients was the Baltimore Archdiocese.

Gallagher’s father died in 1972, putting the family in a precarious financial position. Gallagher’s uncle, Tom, helped hire Gallagher as the night receptionist.

Frank Gallagher Jr. was a lawyer and banker who served on the boards of St. Frances Academy and other organizations.

His daughter said that he struggled with behavioral health and addiction issues because of his abuse.