MILWAUKEE (WI)
Duluth News Tribune
Associated Press
MILWAUKEE - A judge dismissed two fraud lawsuits Monday filed against the Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee by people who say a priest abused them during the 1970s.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Michael D. Guolee ruled the statute of limitations had run out in the case. The three accusers say they were abused between 1973 and 1976 by the Rev. Siegfried Widera, who was accused of abuse in California.
Their attorney argued the clock on the limitations began running when news reports surfaced in 2003 about Widera's conviction 30 years earlier of sexual perversion with a teenager in Wisconsin.
Attorney Jeff Anderson said he plans to appeal the decision.
The accusers say the abuse occurred after Widera was convicted and after the archdiocese transferred him to a Delavan parish from Port Washington without warning the public, according to one of the lawsuits.
Posted by kshaw at June 7, 2005 05:55 AM