May 17, 2006

ST. CHARLES COUNTY: Felon in Florida alleges abuse by priest here

MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

05/17/2006

A man who is in a Florida prison for committing sex acts on a teenage girl filed a lawsuit Tuesday, claiming a late priest from All Saints Parish in St. Peters sexually abused him in the late 1970s when he was a teenager.

The man, Michael K. Orf, 42, who is serving a five-year prison sentence in Daytona Beach, filed the lawsuit in St. Charles County Circuit Court against the Archdiocese of St. Louis. He claimed that beginning in 1976 and ending in 1979, the Rev. Louis Kertz had Orf "engage in sexual activities," telling him that it "would help overcome the problems .[th].[th]. (Orf) was having with his classmates."

Kertz died of cancer in 1985 at age 62. He was transferred from All Saints to a church in Flat River in 1981 a few weeks after another teenager accused him of sexual abuse. The alleged victim filed a suit as "Matt Doe" in August in St. Louis Circuit Court. That suit is pending.

Posted by kshaw at May 17, 2006 07:17 AM