Fox 11
December 9, 2010
http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/news/local/green_bay/diocese-responds-to-outagamie-county-court-ruling
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| Former priest John Feeney |
The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay is responding to a ruling that a lawsuit brought by two abuse victims can proceed.
Former priest John Feeney was convicted in 2004 of molesting Todd and Troy Merryfield in 1978, while Feeney was assigned to a parish in Freedom.
After Feeney was sentenced, the Merryfields sued the diocese for fraud, claiming the diocese knew Feeney had a history of abuse and did not warn parishioners or remove him from ministry. The diocese asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing the statute of limitations had expired and that the Merryfields did not provide sufficient facts the diocese had knowledge of Feeney's conduct.
The diocese released the following statement Thursday:
“We are grateful to have had the opportunity to present to Judge Krueger our Motion for Summary Judgment in which we provided numerous documents," says Deacon Tim Reilly, Diocesan Director of Administration. "For 32 years, we have fully cooperated with each investigation and provided thousands of documents from our files. In our view, there is no indication that any diocesan official had knowledge of sexual molestation prior to the Merryfields' case in 1978. We believe that we demonstrated there was never any fraud, and we trust that we will prevail as the legal process unfolds."
Judge Nancy Krueger ruled last week while the Merryfields were aware of the abuse, they were not aware of how the diocese supervised Feeney or of other complaints against him until the criminal trial.
"The court finds that there is a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the diocese fraudulently misrepresented that Feeney was not a risk to sexually abuse children or was not a danger to children, and could be safely placed in positions in which he had contact with children. Defendants' motion for summary judgment is therefore denied," Krueger wrote.
The diocese also states in the release that it remains committed to reaching out to victims and survivors of clergy abuse.
No trial date has been scheduled.
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