Republican
May 13, 2008
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/05/vermont_jury_awards_87_million.html
BURLINGTON, Vt. - A jury has awarded $8.7 million in damages to a former altar boy who sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington over sexual abuse he says he suffered at the hands of a priest.
The man, now a 40-year-old mechanical engineer in Lakewood, Colo., sued the Diocese over molestation he claims he suffered at the hands of parish priest Rev. Edward Paquette in the 1970s. His suit claimed negligent supervision by the Diocese, accusing church officials of hiring Paquette despite warnings about allegations of molestation of boys in previous assignments.
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| The Rev. Edward Paquette, of Westfield, is a subject in a sexual abuse case in Burlington, Vt. |
After about four hours of deliberations, the Chittenden County Superior Court jury returned a verdict calling today for $950,000 in compensatory damages and $7.75 million in punitive damages.
Priest lives in Westfield
Paquette, a native of Westfield, Mass., first served as a Catholic priest during the 1950s and 1960s in the Diocese of Fall River.
He was removed from that ministry in 1963 after allegations rose that he had sexually molested boys. But he went on to serve in Indiana and Vermont before his permanent removal from ministry in 1978.
There were also complaints against him in Indiana and Vermont.
The Vermont bishop who removed Paquette from the ministry in 1978 was the late John A. Marshal, who served a bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Springfield from 1992 until his death two years later.
Suit not filed until 2005
In the Burlington case, the man testified that Paquette - now retired and living in Westfield - routinely groped him and other altar boys at Christ the King Church in Burlington. He didn't file suit until 2005, and Paquette wasn't named as a defendant.
One of the man's attorneys, John Evers, told jurors in his closing arguments yesterday that a multimillion dollar award was necessary to punish the Diocese for protecting priests instead of children.
Church lawyers contended that the Diocese's leaders at the time believed pedophilia could be cured with prayer and psychological treatment.
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