April 10, 2005

Miss. woman appeals lawsuit against Catholic diocese; new claims on hold

JACKSON (MS)
The Sun Herald

TIMOTHY R. BROWN
Associated Press

JACKSON, Miss. - A Mississippi woman abused by a priest more than 30 years ago has appealed a judge's decision to dismiss her lawsuit against a Catholic diocese.

However, new abuse allegations that surfaced in February cannot be argued in her appeal.

Angie Phillips, 44, claimed in her lawsuit that she was sexually abused by Priest Thomas Boyce and another priest in the 1970s. In 2003, the Catholic Diocese of Jackson acknowledged the abuse by Boyce, who died in 2002, and Phillips sued the diocese.

Her lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice last year by Hinds County Circuit Judge W. Swan Yerger, who said Phillips' statute of limitations had run out.

In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Phillips later claimed that she was being sexually abused during the same period that she allegedly watched her father shoot 16-year-old Randy Lee Hart on June 29, 1974 at Piney Woods Country Life School in Rankin County.

Posted by kshaw at April 10, 2005 06:07 PM