WCAX
December 3, 2008
http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=9449745
Another priest sex abuse trial got underway this morning in Burlington.
The victim - who was 12 at the time of the alleged abuse-- claims he was molested by Reverend Edward Paquette when he was an altar boy at Christ the King Church in Burlington in the late 1970s.
He is suing Vermont's Roman Catholic Diocese for punitive damages. The plaintiff claims former Vermont Bishop John Marshall knowingly failed to protect him from pedophile priests like Paquette.
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| Rev. Edward Paquette |
The plaintiff's lawyer Jerry O'Neill said in court, "We will prove to you the diocese refused to accept any responsibility for what happened here. They say they have no responsibility despite bringing Paquette to Vermont, for allowing him to have access to children, and moving him from parish to parish, and not reporting him to police and not warning parents."
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| Jerry O'Neill |
The diocese is asking that the case be dismissed. They don't deny the boy was molested. But diocese lawyers argue the plaintiff did not file the lawsuit until 36 years after the incident, when he learned about the recent payouts by the diocese to settle the lawsuits. Earlier this year, one of Paquette's victims was awarded nearly $9 million in damages.
Brian Joyce will have much more on this story tonight on the Channel 3 News at 6 p.m.
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