Lawsuit Claims North Carolina Priest Sexually Abused Boy In Church

A recently filed lawsuit accuses a North Carolina Catholic priest, who has already served a prison sentence and was defrocked for previous sex crimes, of sexually assaulted a young altar boy on church grounds.

The complaint was filed on behalf of a young man who is now in his 20s, presenting claims against the former Catholic priest Robert Yurgel, the Charlotte Diocese, and the Capuchin Franciscan Friars.

From July 1997 through October 1999, when the plaintiff was between the ages of five and seven years old, he indicates he was repeatedly sexually assaulted by Yurgel, who has faced similar credible claims from other young members of the church.

Yurgel served about eight years in prison, and was defrocked by the church for sexually abusing an altar boy named Robby Price in 1999. However, the church indicates it only became aware of these new, additional complaints, at the beginning of the year.

The latest charges claim Yurgel told the plaintiff he was sexually abusing him as part of his confessional repentance.

The plaintiff was able to bring these new charges so many years later due to a law put into place in North Carolina in November 2019, called the SAFE Child Act, which opened a “window” in the statute of limitations for claims to be presented that would have previously been time-barred.

Following years of abuse and cover ups by the Catholic Church, the new law extended the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse lawsuits in North Carolina to the age of 28, and also gives the state additional time to file criminal charges.

Similar laws have extended the sexual abuse statute of limitations in other states, including New York, North Carolina, California and other jurisdictions. In addition, a number of state legislators are considering similar laws that allow victims of childhood abuse additional time to step forward with claims against entities responsible for facilitating the abuse, or failing to take steps that could have prevented it.

Written by: Irvin Jackson

Senior Legal Journalist & Contributing Editor

Irvin Jackson is a senior investigative reporter at AboutLawsuits.com with more than 30 years of experience covering mass tort litigation, environmental policy, and consumer safety. He previously served as Associate Editor at Inside the EPA and contributes original reporting on product liability lawsuits, regulatory failures, and nationwide litigation trends.




0 Comments


Share Your Comments

This field is hidden when viewing the form
I authorize the above comments be posted on this page
Post Comment
Weekly Digest Opt-In

Want your comments reviewed by a lawyer?

To have an attorney review your comments and contact you about a potential case, provide your contact information below. This will not be published.

NOTE: Providing information for review by an attorney does not form an attorney-client relationship.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

MORE TOP STORIES

Roblox is facing a lawsuit from a Georgia mother who alleges the platform’s failure to implement adequate child safety measures allowed online predators to groom her young son.
Hearings over the validity of expert witnesses in hair relaxer cancer lawsuits will begin on April 1, 2026, when plaintiffs’ experts must convince the judge that their testimony linking the products to cancer is scientifically reliable enough to be presented to juries.