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	Judge: Church May Face Costly Damages in Sex Abuse Trial By Kevin O'Connor Times Argus May 9, 2008 http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080509/NEWS/371429056 A judge has ruled that a jury can consider punitive as well as compensatory damages against Vermont's Catholic Church in a priest misconduct trial under way in Chittenden Superior Court. "Ordinarily, negligence does not suffice to justify an award of punitive damages," Judge Matthew Katz wrote in a decision released Friday. "Yet high courts in other states have approved punitive damage awards against dioceses, in cases involving negligent supervision of priests known to be molesters." Vermont's largest religious denomination is defending itself in a civil lawsuit brought by Perry Babel, a 40-year-old Burlington native who alleges the diocese was negligent in its hiring and supervision of former priest Edward Paquette. Babel, now of Denver, Colo., claims the diocese didn't stop Paquette from repeatedly fondling him 30 years ago when he was an altar boy at Burlington's Christ the King Church. His case is based on personnel records that show the diocese had transferred Paquette to the state's largest city without telling anyone it knew the priest had molested boys first in Massachusetts, then in Indiana and the Vermont cities of Rutland and Montpelier.
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