KANSAS CITY (MO)
National
By DENNIS CODAY
Kansas City, Mo.
A fifth person who claims he was abused as a boy by Joseph Hart, the retired bishop of Cheyenne, Wyo., filed suit against Hart Aug. 24 in Kansas City, Mo., where Hart served as a priest and where the abuse allegedly took place in the 1970s.
Through his lawyer, Lawrence Ward of Kansas City, Hart denied all accusations. Lawsuits filed against Hart in Kansas City in 2004 are awaiting the outcome of a case being argued in the Missouri Supreme Court this month. That case, from St. Louis, deals with the statute of limitations in cases of childhood sexual abuse.
Victims and their advocates also asked the Cheyenne diocese to remove Hart’s name from a building named after him at a church-owned center that treats abused, neglected and delinquent children and teens.
Cheyenne Bishop David Ricken said he saw no reason to change the name of the Hart Children’s Center, because “none of the accusations against Bishop Hart have been deemed credible.”