Fired principal sues St. Vincent high school, parish and diocese

A fired principal of Petaluma’s St. Vincent de Paul College Prep high school has filed a lawsuit against the parish, the school and its leaders, charging them with wrongful termination, defamation and other charges.

Patrick Daly, who ran the high school for seven years before his termination last year, says in the lawsuit that the school, St. Vincent de Paul Catholic parish, the Diocese of Santa Rosa, the Rev. William Donahue and unnamed “Doe’s” 1 to 100 collaborated to wrongfully terminate him and subsequently defamed him.

The lawsuit, filed in mid-March, alleges that the defendants “acted in concert with one another” and seeks unspecified damages for libel, slander, invasion of privacy, wrongful termination, emotional distress and negligence. Daly also seeks a jury trial.

Daly was terminated suddenly in late August with no immediate explanation from school leadership, prompting students and faculty to walk out of class in protest on Aug. 28.

About a week later, Donahue, who had taken over as interim principal of the school, issued a statement to school families saying that a credit card “assigned to the school principal” had unauthorized charges of over $100,000 that “could not possibly have been school-related” – strongly implying that Daly had used school funds improperly.

The lawsuit claims these statements “were false and libelous on their face.” The suit also states that Daly “has been unable to secure employment” since his termination, and has suffered damages including loss of wages, damage to his reputation and employability.

Other alleged damages include “emotional distress, humiliation, mental anguish, and mortification in a sum to be proven at trial,” the lawsuit states.

Police opened an investigation into the allegations made against Daly, but could not share information on the case because the investigation is still ongoing, said Sgt. Ryan McGreevy of the Petaluma Police Department.

James Lassart, one of the lawyers representing Daly, said the claims against his client “are demonstrably unfounded,” adding that the school’s bookkeeping staff and supervising clergy vetted his expenses “on a monthly basis.”

“I want to emphasize that the public accusation that Mr. Daly’s actions were criminal is abhorrent and it is now impacting him and his ability to provide for his family,” he said.

Neither Bishop Robert Vasa, who heads the Diocese of Santa Rosa, nor other diocese representatives responded to requests for comment.

At the time of Daly’s termination, the Catholic high school was overseen by the St. Vincent de Paul parish, and both fell under the Diocese of Santa Rosa. The school has since moved toward becoming an independent Catholic school run by a board, a model set to begin at the start of the next school year. It is finishing out the current school year under parish administration.

Daly’s tenure at the Catholic school was not without criticism after he participated in a Trump Administration event at the White House for a school reopening forum in the summer of 2020. Weeks later, the school’s only two Black staffers at the time were fired, leading to public protests.

Prior to leading St. Vincent, Daly had over 20 years of experience working in Catholic schools as a teacher, coach and administrator.

You can reach Staff Writer Jennifer Sawhney at 707-521-5346 or jennifer.sawhney@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @sawhney_media.