900 Victims. Zero Prosecutions. The Diocese of Buffalo and the DA Who Protected It
Former Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said it at the press conference announcing charges against his political enemy, Steve Pigeon.
“I stand with the child.”
He said he believed the accuser. He required no corroboration.
But when more than 900 people filed abuse claims against priests of the Diocese of Buffalo under New York’s Child Victims Act, Flynn did not stand with them.
In seven years as Erie County District Attorney—from January 2017 to March 2024—John Flynn did not prosecute a single priest.
Not one.
In the Pocket of the Bishops
Monsignor Gene Thomas Gomulka, a former Navy chaplain, has spent more than three decades documenting predation and cover-ups inside the Catholic Church. He has no prior personal or political history with Flynn; his focus has been on clergy abuse and diocesan cover-ups across multiple states.
In 2023, Gomulka came to Niagara Falls to investigate the Diocese of Buffalo. He met with victims. He read files. He spoke with witnesses.
“Flynn was in the pocket of the bishops,” Gomulka told The Frank Report. “He actively covered up sex abuse. He only prosecuted priests if the bishop wished.”
The connections between Flynn and the Diocese are not hidden.
Flynn’s uncle, Ed Cosgrove—himself a former Erie County District Attorney—represented priests accused of sexual abuse within the Diocese.
On January 20, 2021—during pandemic restrictions that kept ordinary parishioners from attending Mass—Flynn and Cosgrove were among a small group of lay attendees invited to the installation ceremony of Bishop Michael Fisher.
Concelebrating that Mass was Father Art Smith—a priest whose name appears on the Diocese’s own list of clergy with substantiated claims of sexual abuse. Smith’s nephew has publicly accused him of molestation. Flynn never charged him.
The Impossible Explanation
The Ravarini case illustrates how Flynn’s office operated.
Seminarian Wieslaw Walawender reported that Father Dennis Riter had sexually abused Anthony Ravarini.
When the allegation reached Flynn’s office, prosecutors accepted an explanation from Diocese officials: the semen found on Ravarini’s shirt and face was the result of the boy masturbating in a bathroom at Father Riter’s rectory.
There was one problem with that explanation.
Anthony Ravarini was six and a half years old. A six-year-old cannot produce semen. Boys typically begin producing semen between the ages of 10 and 12.
Flynn’s office accepted the impossible explanation anyway.
Flynn has stated that no prosecutable cases within the statute of limitations were presented to his office. But his office accepted the Diocese’s explanation that a six-year-old produced semen. The barrier wasn’t legal—it was willful.
Selective Prosecution
Consider what Flynn chose to prosecute—and what he chose to ignore.
He prosecuted Steve Pigeon on charges of predatory sexual assault—a potential life sentence—based solely on the word of a teenage accuser. The alleged crime: a single incident, one Christmas Eve, one drive home. No grooming. No pattern. No prior claims of misconduct against Pigeon in decades of public life.
According to court records and family members, the accuser had a documented history of fabrications. Her mother had a record of making false accusations against family members. The outcry came five years after the alleged incident, triggered not by therapy or disclosure but by a confrontation over a video about her older brother. Suicide notes written by the accuser before her outcry addressed her older brother and a “very special relationship” between them—but never mentioned Pigeon.
Flynn disclosed none of this at his press conference. He stood at the podium and declared: “I believe the child.” He called the charge “big-boy rape.”
The case collapsed from predatory sexual assault—a potential life sentence—to a single molestation count, eight months in jail, no probation.
Flynn made a complaint against his own cousin Ryan Flynn, alleging Ryan threatened his wife through a tweet. This came five months after Ryan filed a police report accusing John Flynn of sexually abusing him as a child.
Ryan described specific incidents: waking around age 10 to find Flynn, his older cousin—then in his late 20s—lying across his legs, touching him; another time when John exposed himself and asked Ryan to perform sexual acts. Ryan refused. He says John threatened to kill him or ruin his life if he ever told anyone.
Six months after filing that report, Ryan was arrested. The charge: violating an order of protection by making an anonymous online threat against John Flynn’s wife.
The evidence: a single screenshot of a post from an account called “JohnFlynn@NeedMoreHaters1,” an account not registered to Ryan Flynn. The post contains the phrase “just kidding.” No IP address. No device records. No metadata. No forensic analysis tying Ryan to the account.
Judge J. Mark Gruber, a former colleague of Flynn’s in Town of Tonawanda government, held Ryan without bail.
Ryan Flynn has been held without bail for nearly three months on the basis of that screenshot.
Flynn was aggressive in prosecuting those who harassed others—selectively.
He filed harassment, disorderly conduct, and trespass charges against former seminarians Stephen Parisi and Matthew Bojanowski in December 2019. Their crime? Protesting sexual abuse cover-ups in front of The Catholic Center of the Diocese of Buffalo.
Flynn went to the wall against them, coordinating with the Diocese to punish them. But their factual innocence, combined with an unwillingness to take any plea, forced a Buffalo City Court judge to dismiss the charges.
Flynn prosecuted Catholics who protested pedophilia. He did not prosecute the priests they accused.
He prosecuted his political enemy Pigeon on a case so weak it collapsed into an eight-month plea—knowing the charge alone was enough to destroy a man’s reputation.
He did not charge the priests. That might have hurt the church.
And when he himself was accused of molesting a child, he turned his influence toward destroying his accuser.
The Record
The record is clear.
900 alleged victims of priest abuse. Not one prosecution.
Steve Pigeon lives with sex offender status based on a case that collapsed under its own weight.
Priests remain free.
Ryan Flynn remains in custody for accusing his cousin.
And John Flynn? He’s in private practice now. He told a reporter he’s making so much money at the Buffalo law firm of Lippes Mathias that he wouldn’t take a pay cut to run for public office again.
He stands with the child?
Yeah. Sure. Okay.
With Ryan Flynn’s case ongoing and discovery potentially ahead, more facts may emerge under oath.
This is Part 7 in The Flynn Doctrine series.
- Part 1: Former DA John Flynn Accused of Child Sexual Abuse by Cousin; He Prosecuted Pigeon on Similar, Uncorroborated Charges
- Part 2: Former DA John Flynn’s Accuser Speaks From Jail as Case File Reveals New Details
- Part 3: Held Without Bail, Without Heat, Without Water: Ryan Flynn Speaks from Jail
- Part 4: ‘Publish or I Die’: Ryan Flynn’s Hunger Strike
- Part 5: Judicial Complaint Filed Against Judge Who Jailed DA’s Accuser
- Part 6: Ryan Flynn Moved Out of Delta Unit After Coverage; Still Jailed Without Bail
