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	Attorney Quits Client's Case By Kirk Mitchell Denver Post [Colorado] February 27, 2007 http://origin.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_5314429 A Florida attorney says he intends to withdraw from the case of an alleged sex assault victim who admitted in recorded phone conversations that he never was a victim. "We've decided to withdraw from the case," Jeffrey Herman, attorney for Thomas Monroe, 53, said today. Monroe filed a lawsuit in September 2005 against the Diocese of Pueblo and the Marianists Province of the United States, claiming band instructor William Mueller molested him during private trombone lessons when he was a freshman at Roncalli High School in 1968. Monroe claimed that he was molested five times when he was 14. The lawsuit stated that during private music lessons Mueller had Monroe strip and then fondled his genitals while he played a trombone. But in a series of recorded telephone calls, Monroe denied being a victim. "I feel worse being called a victim because I know I'm really not, and I know real victims who are not getting help," Monroe said in a phone conversation with family members that he recorded Sept. 22, 2005, the day his suit was filed. "I may get a million bucks," he chuckled in the DVD recording, "and these real victims are getting nothing but more shame. That's probably why I feel so bad about it." Herman, who represents numerous clients nationally in civil lawsuits against Catholic priests, said he could not comment about why he is withdrawing but his decision came on Monday, the same day an article appeared in The Denver Post detailing the recordings. The Post on Thursday provided Herman with a copy of a two-hour DVD recording of phone conversations in which Monroe told family members he intended to give proceeds of the lawsuit, which he called "dirty money", to family members. Herman said, however, that he will continue to represent 21 other men who claimed they were molested by the band instructor at the Pueblo Catholic school between 1966 and 1971. "I think these are very strong cases," Herman said. "There's a lot of victims out there who have very similar allegations." E-mail: kmitchell@denverpost.com
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