Catholic priest who worked in Orlando faces child abuse accusations, lawsuit

ORLANDO, Fla. — A Catholic priest who worked in Orlando churches for more than a decade faces sexual abuse accusations from sheriff’s investigators and a lawsuit that accuses him of grooming and then abusing a child for years.

Father George Zina, who now works as a pastor at a church in Roanoke, VA, denies any wrongdoing, according to the Eparchy of St. Maron of Brooklyn, which oversees his church.

But the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said this week that it investigated the accusations against Zina and heard “very compelling testimony” from an alleged victim. In February, the sheriff’s office decided Zina should be charged with two counts of sexual battery and sent that recommendation to the Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office.

The state attorney’s office said Thursday the case is under review. Zina worked at Holy Family Catholic Church and St. Jude Maronite Catholic Church, both in Orange County, from around 1997 through 2009.

The allegations come amid an intensified focus in Central Florida on the decades-long, worldwide priest abuse scandal, with the latest attention sparked by the 2024 slaying of another Orlando priest, Father Robert Hoeffner, by a young man he may have abused.

The lawsuit filed last month against the Diocese of Orlando and Zina’s current employer is one of three filed against the diocese this summer by a Florida law firm that specializes in sexual abuse cases. The Herman Law firm has sued Catholic churches in Florida and New York previously and on its website details information about the church’s sexual abuse scandals and posts a “Florida predator priest index.”

The other two lawsuits involve Hoeffner, who had spent 25 years in Orlando parishes, including a stint as a teacher at Bishop Moore Catholic High School, before taking a post in Brevard County. He retired in 2016.

“The lawsuits claim that the Diocese and parishes had multiple opportunities to intervene and protect children but failed to do so. That inaction caused irreparable harm,” said Jenny Rossman, Herman Law’s lead trial attorney in a statement about the three lawsuits.

The three alleged victims — all anonymous in the new lawsuits — are suing the diocese for negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. They are collectively seeking compensation of no less than $60 million.

The abuse documented in the lawsuits occurred between the 1980s and the early 2000s, the lawsuits contend.

The sheriff’s office would not confirm whether the Zina accuser in its investigation is the same alleged victim from the new lawsuit, nor would it offer any details about its investigation.

That lawsuit centers on an unnamed individual who met Zina at Holy Family when he was about nine years old. At the time his family attended that church and developed a bond with Zina because they all spoke Italian, the lawsuit says. Zina later became a priest at St. Jude Maronite, where the boys’ family started attending church.

When the plaintiff became an altar server, Zina began grooming him, calling him “my best boy,” and would lure him away from other priests and parishioners to abuse him. He sexually abused the boy in confession rooms, rectories, a recreation hall, a bathroom, the church secretary’s office and his car, the lawsuit says.

At one point, Zina also told him God chooses one altar server to be with the priest in a same-sex relationship and that the two of them would eventually live together.

Zina was put on leave from around 2009 to 2010 and then transferred to a Catholic church in Massachusetts, according to the lawsuit. It does not mention why he was placed on leave. Zina is now the pastor at St. Elias Maronite Catholic Church in Roanoke. The eparchy, an organization similar to a diocese which oversees that church, said in an emailed statement that Zina and church officials had cooperated with the police investigation. Because the eparchy has never received a complaint from an alleged victim, and no criminal charges have been filed, it has decided to take no action against him now, it said.

The recent legal actions against the Orlando diocese involving Hoeffner date back to May, when the Herman Law Firm first sued the diocese on behalf of New York resident Shawn Teuber, who alleged Hoeffner sexually abused him while he was a student at St. Joseph Catholic School in Palm Bay. That lawsuit claims the diocese was warned of Hoeffner’s inappropriate behavior with young boys but took no action — a charge the diocese has denied.

The diocese has moved to have that lawsuit dismissed, but now faces two others from two other men who say they were abused by Hoeffner when they were children, along with the Zina suit.

Spokeswoman Jennifer Drow said the diocese is evaluating the new allegations against Hoeffner, but said church leadership did not know of any accusations of abuse made against Hoeffner when he was an active priest or even after his retirement.

Drow said Zina was not employed by the diocese, though it was named in the lawsuit, and was unaware of any claims of wrongful conduct against him.

The diocese posts on its website a list of priests and other personnel who had been removed after a “credible allegation of sexual abuse.” The list includes 20 names.

Hoeffner’s two new accusers came forward after hearing about Teuber’s lawsuit.

The Palm Bay Police Department says Hoeffner and one of his sisters, Sally, were shot and killed in January 2024 at their home by Brandon Kapas. Police fatally shot Kapas after confronting him at the home of his grandfather, whom he had also killed.

Teuber said Kapas was a childhood friend and classmate of his at St. Joseph. Rossman said Tuesday she thinks it’s more likely than not Kapas was abused by Hoeffner, a view shared by one of Kapas’ relatives.

One of the new Hoeffner lawsuits alleges Hoeffner met one of the victims, then around 14, when he ran a program for boys to earn community service hours at St. Isaac Jogues Church in east Orlando. Hoeffner plied the plaintiff with gifts, such as clothes and shoes, eventually paying a down payment on his first car and opening his first bank account for him.

Hoeffner would abuse the plaintiff during so-called therapy sessions in his office, the lawsuit said.

The plaintiff began spending time at Hoeffner’s home, where the abuse continued. Two other adolescent boys lived with Hoeffner, who would frequently walk naked around the house and “demanded” the boys walk around naked too, the suit claimed. The plaintiff lived with Hoeffner for his senior year of high school when he was 17.

It was common knowledge at St. Isaac Jogues that Hoeffner lived with boys, the lawsuit contends, and Sister Lucy Vazquez, who served in multiple leadership roles at the diocese before her retirement last year, told Hoeffner on multiple occasions that she and the diocese didn’t like that children were living with him. Hoeffner told her he would quit the diocese if he was prohibited from living with them, the lawsuit says.

Hoeffner met the second plaintiff when the teenager was about 14, at St. Isaac Jogues after the boy’s mother had him attend to become an altar server.

Hoeffner would massage the boy’s neck and shoulders while saying prayers to him and and later sexually abused him during so-called prayer sessions, that lawsuit claims.

On one occasion, the boy’s mother saw Hoeffner kiss the plaintiff on the lips and yelled at Hoeffner in front of others to never touch her son again, it says.

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