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	Prosser Questioned on Priest-Abuse Case By Andy Nelesen Green Bay Press-Gazette May 16, 2008 http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080516/GPG0101/805160673/1978/GPGbusiness A support group for victims of sexual abuse by members of the clergy is calling for state Supreme Court Judge David Prosser to explain his role in the sex abuse investigation of the Rev. John Patrick Feeney while Prosser served as Outagamie County District Attorney. The call by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests came because of a letter included in court filings on behalf of Troy and Todd Merryfield, two men who are suing the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay for fraud after being abused by Feeney as children in the 1970s. A December 1978 letter from then-Bishop Aloysius Wycislo to the Rev. Ralph Merkatoris, then chairman of the Diocese Personnel Board, details the meeting. "I have just spent a half hour with the district attorney for Outagamie County, who presented me with evidence of a number of crimes of like sexual nature and a number of other civil violations of law that the attorney feels are base enough for a court case against Father Feeney," Wycislo wrote. "As is usual in such cases and out of respect for the position of the Church, and in order to prevent unnecessary scandal, the DA came to see me merely to state that he was pursuing this case, gathering evidence toward prosecution of Father Feeney for a number of misdemeanors," Wycislo wrote. "I had to agree with the district attorney that the church would prefer to keep this out of court and out of the public eye and IU was able to tell him of our decision last week, with which he agreed." Feeney, now 81, was convicted in 2004 and is serving 15 years in jail for assaulting the Merryfields. The civil lawsuit seeks unspecified damages from the diocese and its insurance company. Wycislo's letter confirmed the Personnel Committee's decision to move Feeney to a parish outside the area or mandate he get treatment. It also said that even if Feeney were cured, the district attorney could not see how the priest could return to the diocese or the state. The Survivor's Network called on Prosser to explain his connection to the clergy case. "Help us to understand the decisions you made and why," Isely wrote. Efforts to reach Prosser were unsuccessful Thursday.
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