(NECN: Alysha Palumbo - Waltham, MA) - Sex abuse claims against a former Waltham High School assistant football coach and McDevitt Middle School theater teacher have re-surfaced, four years after that teacher died.
One of the alleged victims, then 14-year-old Michael Phillips, Jr. has come forward in a new lawsuit to explain what he says happened to him and his friend six years ago at Robert Dacey's Waltham home.
"We both had trust in Dacey and we both looked up to him so when he told us that all we had to do was get a massage and we also got paid $50 to do it, us at 14 thought $50 was a lot of money, so we did it," said Phillips.
"And in order to do this, they would have to be blindfolded, what they didn't know is that Dacey would then leave the room, put on a wig, fake fingernails, come back in and pretend to massage them, but actually sexually assault them," said Phillips' attorney Carmen Durso.
Dacey was indicted in 2006 on rape and other charges, but died in 2007 before the case was resolved.
Now Phillips and his attorney Carmen Durso are suing the city of Waltham and former principal John Graceffa, whom they say didn't do enough to protect Phillips.
Durso claims Graceffa knew about a third victim, allegedly abused years before Phillips was, because the alleged abuse was reported to him by the boy's mother, football coach and football coach's wife.
"The fact that John Graceffa was told three times in 2002 about Dacey and did not take the appropriate action is all that we need to be able to prove in this case to make our claim," said Durso.
No one answered the door at Graceffa's home, and he did not return our requests for comment.
"I think he did let me down," said Phillips. "I think he let a lot of people down."
The lawsuit was just filed on Friday so both the superintendent's office and city attorney's office said they had not received it yet.
The superintendent did not return our calls for comment.
But the city attorney told me the matter was thoroughly investigated by law enforcement years ago and he believes if they could have found a way to charge additional people they would have.
Attorney John Cervone went on to say that the timing seems a little odd and it sounds like someone's out for a "payday."
Meanwhile, Phillips' attorney says this lawsuit is surfacing so many years later because his client didn't know until recently about a victim who was allegedly abused by the same teacher when he attended Waltham high school from 1998 to 2001.
Local
The lawsuit alleges former principal John Graceffa was told of the abuse and said he would take care of it -- but didn't report it to police.
Graceffa is currently Dean of Students at Arlington Catholic High School.
He was recently elected to the Waltham School Committee, and is scheduled to be sworn in next month.
