ALASKA
Fairbanks News-Miner
By MARY BETH SMETZER
Staff Writer
A civil lawsuit filed Wednesday in Bethel Superior Court adds 12 new complainants alleging they were sexually abused as children by Roman Catholic clerics or volunteers.
Seven complainants, James Does 33 through 39, pushes the plaintiff count up to 39 against Joseph Lundowski, a former Trappist monk, now deceased.
Four women, Julia Does 1 through 4, are bringing suit against Anton Smario, a Franciscan friar, alleging that he molested them as children in the villages of St. Michael and Stebbins.
A fifth woman, Jean Doe 1, alleges the Rev. George Endal, a Jesuit priest now deceased, who supervised both Lundowski and Smario in western Alaska communities, sexually abused her over a three-year period.
Defendants named in the lawsuit are the Fairbanks Catholic Diocese, The Society of Jesus, Oregon Province, and Alaska, the Catholic Archbishop of Anchorage, Anton Smario, and the Franciscan Friars of California.
The latter three defendants in Wednesday's filing are new additions. The amended lawsuit includes Smario, who now lives in California, and was a professed Franciscan friar of the third order of the Santa Barbara Province at the time of the alleged abuse.
Posted by kshaw at May 12, 2005 06:30 AM