FORT WORTH (TX)
Star-Telegram
By DARREN BARBEE
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
FORT WORTH -- Three women asked a Fort Worth judge Tuesday to unseal the records of a former Arlington priest they accused of sexual misconduct in the 1970s and 1990s.
The women, who are not identified in the lawsuit, joined an ongoing legal effort to open the Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese files concerning seven clerics accused of abusing children. A hearing is set next month in state District Judge Len Wade's court to hear the arguments in the case.
In the court filings, two of the women say that the Rev. Joseph Tu Ngoc Nguyen groped them "under the guise of counseling or confession" when they were young adults at St. Matthew Catholic Church in Arlington in the 1990s.
The third, who is now a teacher in Tarrant County, says she was 13 when the conduct occurred in Arlington in the 1970s, according to court documents and the women's attorney.