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	No End in Sight for Catholic Diocese's Troubles over Abuse WCAX [Burlington VT] February 4, 2007 http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=6035308&nav=4QcS The number of lawsuits accusing priests in Vermont's Roman Catholic Diocese of sexual abuse continues to grow, as do the church's financial worries. The church faced 16 lawsuits about alleged sex abuse _ much of it dating back decades _ when it reached a $985,000 settlement of one of the suits last April. Now it faces 26 civil cases and is following the case of a priest facing a current criminal charge. Rev. Stephen J. Nichols, 47, is scheduled to go on trial in April in St. Albans for felony lewd and lascivious conduct for allegedly fondling a naked 18-year-old man in 2005. Criminal charges are not possible in many of the cases, some dating to the 1970s, because Vermont's statute of limitations for the crimes involved has expired, authorities say. Meanwhile, the diocesan deficit, $127,947 at the start of the last fiscal year, has grown tenfold because of the lawsuits. Legal wrangling abounds. The church's longtime lawyer has just made a third bid to get the judge hearing the cases replaced. Some of the church's accusers want to know why the cases are taking so long to move forward, said the lawyer representing all 26, Jerome O'Neill of Burlington. "The diocese has no interest in getting these cases resolved promptly," he said. "It uses any procedural mechanism that will slow a case down." The diocese says it wants a just outcome. "I certainly don't think it's ethical for me to deny my client the right to have issues reviewed in the interest of due process," church lawyer David Cleary of Rutland says. "This is taking its normal course. The normal time to trial is somewhere between two to three years after a suit is filed." While the diocese is the defendant in the lawsuits alleging abuse, it is the plaintiff in another. The church is suing its former insurance company to recover costs stemming from some of the lawsuits, saying it had a comprehensive liability policy with the United States Fidelity and Guaranty Co. from 1973 to 1978. The company, now part of the St. Paul Travelers Companies of St. Paul, Minn., has agreed to pay legal fees for cases in which alleged acts took place during the time the policy was in force. But it says it should not have to cover costs stemming from abuse by priests if it's proven the church continued to employ the priest even when it knew of past misconduct.
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