July 01, 2005

Attorneys: Record settlement reached with Miami Archdiocese

MIAMI (FL)
The Ledger

The Associated Press
MIAMI
A woman who alleged that a priest sexually abused her when she was a teenager working at his parish reached a settlement for more than half a million dollars with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami, her attorneys said.

The settlement surpasses the $500,000 the archdiocese paid in 2003 to a boy who accused a priest of molesting him at a nursing home, William Snihur and May Cain, the woman's attorneys, said Thursday.

The woman and another female parishioner of St. David Catholic Church in Davie accused the church's former associate pastor, the Rev. Jan Malicki, of sexual misconduct in 1998.

The settlement "says to us that the church recognized the validity of our clients' claims and took them very seriously," Snihur said.

The archdiocese and the attorneys declined to divulge the exact amount of the settlement.

The archdiocese suspended Malicki, but Broward County prosecutors never filed charges because they felt they couldn't win a conviction.

Posted by kshaw at July 1, 2005 06:54 AM