August 02, 2005

Defamation lawsuit under way

WISCONSIN
Janesville Gazette

(Published Monday, August 1, 2005 10:57:06 AM CDT)

By Sid Schwartz
Gazette Staff

A Rock County jury will be asked to decide this week whether a former Janesville priest sexually assaulted a former altar boy between 1989 and 1991.

The Rev. Gerald Vosen in March 2004 filed a defamation lawsuit against a Janesville man, now 26, who told Catholic Church authorities that Vosen sexually assaulted him when he was in fifth and sixth grade at St. John Vianney Catholic School in Janesville.

Vosen, 71, was pastor at St. John Vianney from June 1989 to December 1994.

A three-day jury trial on Vosen's lawsuit was scheduled to start this morning in front of Rock County Judge John Roethe.

Posted by kshaw at August 2, 2005 02:02 AM