ST. LOUIS (MO)
Post-Dispatch
By Robert Patrick
Of the Post-Dispatch
06/27/2005
James Beine, the former Roman Catholic priest freed from prison this month by the Missouri Supreme Court, was sued Monday by a man who said Beine abused him more than 30 years ago.
Tony Pettus' lawsuit says Beine molested Pettus in the early 1970s, when the priest took Pettus and five other boys camping at Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park.
Beine forced Pettus, who was then about 11 years old, to touch Beine's genitals, according to the suit, filed Monday morning against Beine, the St. Louis Roman Catholic Archdiocese and Archbishop Raymond Burke in St. Louis Circuit Court.
In interviews Monday and earlier this year, Pettus said he had gone on the trip with a friend who was a member of St. Andrew's parish in Lemay.
"When bedtime came, I didn't have nowhere to sleep, so I had to sleep with him" in his tent, Pettus said. He said he was prompted to come forward by news of Beine's release.