Recently in Church Category

Employees of the Trinity Lutheran Church were absolved of criminal charges by the Monroe County Prosecutor's Office, in a case in which several school girls were told to strip to their underwear so that school authorities could conduct a 'search' for stolen money. However, the family of one of the girls has filed a civil lawsuit against the church employees.
Monroe attorney Christopher Mariott filed the lawsuit on behalf of the girl's mother, Martha Feller.
The 12 year old, who was publicly humiliated, has suffered severe emotional distress and severe embarrassment after the events of that day.
The lawsuit has named the Trinity Luheran School, Principal John Hilken, teacher Marsha Hand and head cook Phyllis Blohm amongst others, as defendants in the case.
To read more about the case click here.

Last month a jury awarded a former altar boy nearly $3.6 million in damages. He alleged hat he had been molested by Father Edward Paquette in the 1970's.
The Vermont Catholic Diocese, to which the Father belonged, has challenged the judgement by filing an appeal against the costly sex abuse punishment.
Their appeal is that the victim waited too long before he decided to file a lawsuit. They alleged that the jury's punitive damages award was out of line with punitive damage limitations established by the U.S. Supreme Court.
David Navari, who served as an altar boy under Paquette, has stated that he is willing to give the money back to the church.
The diocese was asked to pay the multi-million dollar damage amount for failing to protect Navari from a known paedophile priest 30 years ago.
To read more about the case and about the jury verdict click here.

Attorneys for the Catholic Diocese of Belleville attempted to move the court to set aside, or order a new trial for a $5 mllion civil jury verdict against the church for damages suffered by a former altar boy. However, their motion was denied by the St Clair County Circuit judge Lloyd Cueto. The next option for the diocese is to appeal to the 5th District Appellate Court in Mount Vernon.
A jury awarded James Wisniewski, 47, $5 million in damages and medical costs in connection to his 2002 lawsuit against Rev Raymond Kownacki who allegedly sexually abused him for five years beginning when he was about 13 years old while he served as an altar boy at St Theresa’s Church in Salem.
To read the original story click here.

American courts have a long tradition of non- intervention in Church related disputes. Going against this tradition, a Montgomery County court has been embroiled in a conflict of interests between a priest and a bishop.  This particular lawsuit was filed by a priest against an Episcopal bishop who he claims, defrocked him fraudulently six years ago without a hearing before diocesan officials. Rev. David Moyer, rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, seeks unspecified damages for loss of employment and mental suffering from Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr.
This case is the first of its kind in America and could set a precedent allowing clergy in religious institutions to sue their superiors in a civil court as opposed to a church court.
The judge, Joseph Smyth, was not sure if the case belonged to the church court purview or the civil court purview. After much deliberation he decided he would continue to hear out the whole case. His decision came after Bennison’s attorney requested the judge to throw the case out.
Bennison suspended Moyer for six months in March 2002 threatening him with removal from priesthood if he did not comply. However, after the suspension and despite Moyer’s compliance, Bennison and the diocesan standing committee used a rarely invoked canon and declared that he had ‘abandoned the communion’ of the Episcopal Church following which he was removed without a trial.

A civil lawsuit filed by Carsten and Sally Ellison against the Catholic Diocese of Superior in connection with the death of their son, James, has been rejected, and an appeal is unlikely. The courts had previously ruled that Fr. Ryan Erickson likely shot and killed both James Ellison and Daniel O'Connell in 2002. Erickson later hanged himself outside the church soon after authorities began investigating his possible involvement in the double homicide.

The Ellisons were seeking unspecified damages for their son's death, claiming that the Diocese knew that there were allegations of sexual assault and other abusive behaviors linked to Erickson, were overlooked.

Now Eau Claire County Judge Paul Lenz has rejected their claim that the church should have known that more drastic measures were needed for Erickson to avoid certain tragedy. The judge ruled that it was not realistic to expect church officials to foresee that Erickson would kill.

The family of a boy who was sexually assaulted by his seventh-grade teacher settled their lawsuit against the Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed, as requested by the family.

The former teacher, Dawn Reiser, who taught at Holy Trinity Catholic School in Grapevine, was convicted last year of aggravated sexual assault and indecency with a child. She was sentenced to eight years in prison. She must serve four years and register as a sex offender.

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The 12th Indiana lawsuit against former Catholic priest Harry Monroe for sexual abuse of boys has been filed. This suit alleges that he abused the same teenage victim more than 50 times until the Archdiocese of Indianapolis transferred him.

The complaint was filed in Marion Superior Court in Indianapolis and alleged the abuse began in 1975 when the boy was 13. The abuse allegedly continued over four years while Monroe took subsequent postings at two other parishes in other parts of the city.

It ended when the archdiocese transferred Monroe to a parish in Terre Haute, about an hour west of Indianapolis, Noaker said.

Monroe plied the boy with alcohol and marijuana during some of their meetings, and the victim, now 43 and married and living in another state, has wrestled with chemical dependency and depression in adulthood, Noaker said.

The archdiocese does not comment on pending child abuse lawsuits in which it is a defendant, but urges victims of sexual misconduct by Monroe to contact the archdiocesan chancellor, Suzanne L. Yakimchick.

The previous 11 complaints allege Monroe sexually abused juvenile male parishioners in Indianapolis, Terre Haute and in Perry County, before being stripped of his ministry in 1984.

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A federal judge in Oregon has denied a motion by attorneys for the Vatican to dismiss a civil lawsuit brought against it by a sexual abuse victim of a onetime Chicago priest. This is the first time that a lawsuit against the Vatican has proceeded this far in the U.S. courts. 

The victim, known only as "John Doe" was allegedly molested as a youth in Oregon by the Rev. Andrew Ronan.  Judge Michael W. Mosman said the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act, which protects foreign nations from lawsuits in U.S. courts, does not apply to the Vatican in this case because the Vatican knew the priest had a history of sexual misconduct with minors and  allowed him to continue in ministry.

Ronan had been removed from ministry in Northern Ireland after a student at a seminary there accused him of sexual misconduct and left the priesthood in 1966 amid more allegations of abuse in Portland.

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A federal judge has rejected a $45.7-million settlement between 75 people who have filed sex abuse claims and the bankrupt Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams urged lawyers representing the diocese, victims, parishes and other parties to enter into mediation. She decided that the settlement favored the 75 people over other alleged victims.

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