MILWAUKEE (WI)
San Luis Obispo Tribune
Associated Press
MILWAUKEE - A man filed a lawsuit Monday alleging he was molested by a priest as an altar boy in 1982 and that church officials knew the priest had sexually abused other boys in the past.
The lawsuit, filed by Charles Linneman, 36, of Sugar Grove, Ill., named the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, former priest Franklyn Becker and an insurance company.
Linneman contends he was sexually abused at the age of 14 in Becker's living quarters at a Milwaukee-area parish. The lawsuit, seeking unspecified damages, alleges that Becker had previously molested other boys, causing church officials to transfer him to a parish in California and then back to Wisconsin again.
Charges were filed against Becker in 2003 accusing him of molesting a boy in a San Diego parish in 1978. The charges were dismissed after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a law that allowed prosecution of decades-old sex abuse allegations.
Posted by kshaw at May 17, 2005 07:18 AM