VIRGINIA
WAVY
(AP) - Two Virginia circuit court judges have ruled only individuals - not corporate entities - can be held financially liable for child sexual abuse, a blow to victims hoping to sue their abusers' employers.
The rulings concerned separate cases in Norfolk and Richmond, both listing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond as a defendant.
One involved Steve Kopalchick of Hopewell. Now 52, Kopalchick claimed two priests at St. James Catholic Church in Hopewell molested him while he served as an altar boy there in the 1960s. One of the men has since died; the other lives overseas and suffers from Alzheimer's.
Kopalchick filed a $5 million suit in Richmond Circuit Court in 2003.
The June 8 ruling concerns churches, schools and corporations.