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	Judge Tosses $1.75 Million Judgment for Priest's Daughter Associated Press, carried in Sioux City Journal January 15, 2008 http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2008/01/15/news/nebraska/8333b909460ba8a0862573d10013186c.txt LINCOLN, Neb.— A federal judge has dismissed the $1.75 million judgment for a woman who says she was sexually assaulted by her father, a former Fellowship Baptist pastor who led churches in Lincoln. U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf threw out the verdict against Gordon Vella and vacated the award, upon request of the woman's attorney. The civil lawsuit filed against Vella stated that he sexually abused his daughter from 1978 to 1983, when she was between 5 and 11 years old. The daughter, now in her 30s, suffered from dissociative amnesia and repressed memories of the abuse until January 2003, according to the lawsuit. Under Nebraska law, the statute of limitations for sexual assault is seven years or within seven years of the victim's 21 birthday, whichever is later. Those limitations may be waived if the victim suffered from a mental disorder. A jury ruled for the woman in a May trial. It is The Associated Press' policy not to identify most alleged victims of sexual abuse. Vella served as pastor at Fellowship Baptist Church from 1979 to 1981 and at New Hope Baptist Church from 1981 to 1983. Vella now lives in Michigan. He no longer works as a pastor.
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