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	Appeal Made on Release of Abuse Info The Kentucky Post [Covington KY] September 9, 2006 http://news.kypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060909/NEWS02/609090342/1014 Attorneys who represent victims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington have appealed a judge's order to release personal information about the victims. In a petition filed Friday with the Kentucky Court of Appeals, the attorneys say that Special Judge John Potter's order has already harmed their clients. After hearing of the order, one 60-year-old, a victim of abuse more than 40 years ago, became so emotionally upset that he cried daily, the attorneys said in the filing. He had two heart attacks and had to have emergency surgery performed. His doctor told him stress caused the attacks. Another victim, abused in his teens and now 64, said anxiety about his name being turned over to prosecutors has prompted to him to withdraw his claim in the case. A 39-year-old also victimized as a teen-ager, who has many attorneys as clients, fears that his name will leak out and his business be harmed. "The order has turned his life into a daily nightmare," the appeal says. Potter issued the order on June 21. It requires that the names of all the victims in the class-action suit - as well as their addresses, phone numbers and other contact information - be given to prosecutors. He did so, he said, because Kentucky law requires those with knowledge of abuse to report it. But attorneys for the victims, including Cincinnati class-action specialist Stan Chesley, argue that those laws are designed to protect children suffering abuse right now - not adults who endured it years ago. They also argue that the order violates the victims' constitutional right to privacy. Many victims only came forward to join the case after they were assured their personal information wouldn't become public, the attorneys said. According to the appeal, Potter himself stated in an order of June 2005 that the information victims submitted in the settlement process wouldn't be made public without their consent. The class-action lawsuit covers victims of sexual abuse in the diocese for the past 50 years. The parties agreed to settle for up to $85 million. Exact amounts of payments to victims will vary according to the severity of the abuse, ranging from $5,000 to $450,000 apiece.
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