IOWA
Des Moines Register
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
September 27, 2005
A former Roman Catholic Bishop accused of sexually abusing minors as a priest and principal in eastern Iowa wants the judge assigned to his case replaced.
Attorneys for former Bishop Lawrence Soens, who retired as Bishop in the Sioux City Diocese in 1998, is defending allegations in at least two lawsuits that he molested minors 40 years ago while serving as principal at Regina High School, a Catholic school in Iowa City.
Through his lawyer, Soens has denied the allegations, which accuse him of ordering students to private meetings in his principal’s office where he engaged in improper sexual conduct.
In motions filed recently in Scott County District Court, Soens seeks to have Judge C.H. Pelton disqualified and a new judge appointed to the cases.
Pelton was appointed last year to preside over the consolidation of more than 30 sexual abuse lawsuits involving priests from the Davenport Diocese, none of which named Soens.
Most of those cases were resolved before trial when the diocese agreed to pay $9 million to settle 37 lawsuits. Pelton also presided over a pair of jury trials involving two different priests. In both cases, the jury awarded monetary damages to the victims.
But Soens contends Pelton should be replaced claiming key rulings he made in those cases were wrong.