Jesuit High School Reaches 2nd Abuse Settlement in 2 Months as At Least 9 Modica Cases End
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Aug 9
Jesuit High School Reaches 2nd Abuse Settlement in 2 Months as At Least 9 Modica Cases End
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 9
Summary
Late-July court filings show Jesuit High School agreed to a second out-of-court settlement in two months, resolving a lawsuit by a plaintiff identified as Jayson Doe ahead of a scheduled late-September trial.
Doe alleged janitor Pete Modica began molesting him at age 13 in 1978 after he entered the New Orleans school, and said Modica exploited the family's trust by claiming he had helped secure the boy's admission.
A June settlement involved another plaintiff who said Modica and fellow janitor Gary Sanchez abused him on campus in the mid-1970s; the plaintiff's lawyer would not deny that deal exceeded a separate $2.4 million Louisiana abuse verdict from 2025.
Court records now indicate Jesuit has paid at least nine settlements tied to Modica abuse claims, six of them after Richard Windmann publicly described abuse in 2018 despite having quietly settled with the school for $450,000 in 2012.
The settlements sit alongside the wider New Orleans clergy-abuse fallout: the archdiocese proposed a $305 million bankruptcy resolution in December, but survivors covered by that case were still awaiting payment as of Sunday.