June 07, 2005

Former priest Janssen opposes jury's award in sexual-abuse lawsuit

IOWA
Quad-City Times

Todd Ruger
A former priest asked a district court judge Monday to overrule a jury's $1.89 million judgment against him in a civil lawsuit alleging the priest sexually abused his underage nephew when he was in the Catholic Diocese of Davenport.

The attorney for James Janssen, 83, cited numerous reasons why he thought the jury's judgment and trial in May were unfair at a hearing in Scott County.

"There's really no rational basis for some of the awards," attorney Edward Wehr said to District Judge C.H. Pelton, who presided over the trial. "The establishment of punitive damages was without a foundation."

The unanimous verdict in the civil trial came after about four hours of deliberations, with jurors concluding that James Wells, 56, of Bettendorf, should collect damages from his uncle for nine years of sexual abuse that ended in 1962 despite filing his lawsuit more than 40 years later.

Posted by kshaw at June 7, 2005 05:38 AM