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	Attorney for Plaintiffs in Case against Diocese May Seek Testimony from Bishops Braxton and Gregory By Beth Hundsdorfer News-Democrat July 15, 2009 http://www.bnd.com/breaking_news/story/845596.html BELLEVILLE — An attorney representing four men who claim they were sexually abused as youths by a priest said during a court hearing Wednesday that he may seek permission to place Belleville Bishop Edward Braxton and former Bishop Wilton Gregory on the witness stand. Mike Weilmuenster, the attorney who filed suit against the diocese, told St. Clair County Circuit Judge Patrick Young it will be necessary to question the Rev. Monsignor James Margason about how he went about gathering information was a court ordered be released. "Depending on what I learn, it may be necessary to question Bishop Braxton and Bishop Gregory to see if they were asked about what they knew about abuse cases," Weilmuenster said. Weilmuenster told Young that a 1962 Vatican document was not turned over during the discovery process as required by law. The document outlines how bishops should handle allegations of the so-called "worst crime," sexual abuse of minors by priests. The memo said the diocese should keep the secret of the abuse, "under penalty of excommunication." Margason never turned over the document, said diocese lawyer David Wells, because they never had it. "In his affidavit, Margason said he's never seen a copy of that 1962 memo," Wells told the judge. No date has been set for the hearing where Margason will testify. Weilmuenster said the diocese also did not disclose the names of other sexual abuse victims of the accused priest, the Rev. Raymond Kownacki. "The only victims that I ever heard of were the ones I already represented," Weilmunster said. "It has me wondering what other victims I don't know about." With his law partner, Steve Wigginton, Weilmuenster won a $5 million verdict for James Wisniewski of Champaign during a civil trial last August in St. Clair County Circuit Court. Wisniewski claimed that when he was am altar boy, the Rev. Raymond Kownacki began sexually molesting him for years. Kownacki has had no comment since the verdict. Weilmuenster told the judge many people approached him and told him they were victimized by Kownacki. One was Steve Kern, whose family met with Gregory. Kern's sister mailed a registered letter to Bishop Edward Braxton in 2005, informing him of the abuse. Wells, the diocese's attorney, told the judge that the woman did not identify her brother in the letter. Two of the other plaintiffs are identified only by initials. During Thursday's hearing, Young approved a defense request to have the fourth plaintiff, identified only as John Doe, examined by Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Harrison G. Pope Jr. for up to five hours. During the Wisniewski trial, widespread evidence of a cover-up by high-ranking diocesan officials was presented. Margason was cross-examined and admitted during that trial that he and others knew of sexual abuse by Kownacki but did nothing to stop him from being transferred to other parishes. Braxton was not installed as bishop in Belleville until June 2005, well after the alleged sexual abuse listed in the lawsuits.
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