New Minnesota Law Spawns Fresh Lawsuits over Decades-old Priest Sex Abuse

Press TV
May 31, 2013

http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/306355.html


A Minneapolis-St. Paul man has stepped forward to file the first lawsuit of sexual abuse by a priest since Gov. Mark Dayton (DFL) signed the Child Victims Act into law.

The 51-year-old man who has chosen to remain anonymous filed the law suit against ex-priest Thomas Adamson on Wednesday alleging multiple incidents of sexual abuse in the 70s, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported.

“He was suffering in the shadows. There are going to be many more [suits] to come, as they should. Now is the time for reckoning,” said St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson who is representing the plaintiff.

In the past, the statute of limitations on sex prevented adults over 24 to sue for childhood abuse. Now that the statute is lifted by The Child Victims Act, adults can sue for any abuse during their past including the school or church.

The alleged victim, known as Doe1, who has sued ex-priest Thomas Anderson, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona demands that the diocese and archdiocese release the names of 46 priests who have been charged with “credible accusations of sexual abuse.”

The suits states that Doe1 was groomed and repeatedly molested by Adamson, who had gained trust from the boy’s family. The priest started abusing boys in the 1960s and was relocated every time a complaint was made by victims or their families. A scenario which is very familiar to the public. Anderson was at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in St. Paul Park from 1976 to 1979, when he allegedly molested Doe1.