MONTANA
Havre Daily News
Larry Kline
Havre Daily News
lkline@havredailynews.com
An Alaska law firm on Wednesday filed a lawsuit naming a deceased Hays priest in a case of alleged sexual abuse of a child.
The lawsuit, filed by Anchorage law firm Cooke, Roosa & Valcarce on behalf of an unnamed victim, alleges that the late Bernard McMeel sexually molested the man in Alaska when the man was a child. McMeel served in Alaska before he was reassigned to St. Paul's Mission Church in Hays from 1978 until his death in 1992.
The lawsuit also claims the victim was abused by another Jesuit priest, Andrew Eordogh, now retired and living in Hungary. The suit, filed in state Superior Court in Bethel, Alaska, also names the Fairbanks Diocese of the Catholic Church, and the Oregon and Alaska provinces of the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits.
The Oregon Province extends from Point Barrow, Alaska, to southern Oregon and from the Pacific Ocean to the eastern plains of Montana.