Four Minnesota Priests, Alleged As Sex Abusers, Named in Three New Civil Lawsuits

Noaker Law Firm
October 2, 2014

http://noakerlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/10-02-2014-Four-Minneesota-Priests-News-Release.pdf

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Attorneys on October 2, 21014 filed three new civil lawsuits against Catholic church officials on behalf of child sex-abuse survivors who broke their silence to step forward. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is named as a defendant in two cases; the Diocese of New Ulm is named as a defendant in two cases. One case shockingly alleges that two priests molested the same 12-year-old altar boy at Sacred Heart Parish in Robbinsdale.

Attorneys say that the cluster of cases filed October 2, 2014 is a result of more perpetrators being uncovered in their year-and-a-half long investigation into decades of clergy sex abuse -- prompting more victims to come forward.

“This is a sad chapter in Minnesota’s history that’s being told one victim at a time,” said Pat Noaker, Minneapolis lawyer and victim’s attorney. “As we piece together these cases, more information is coming to light.”

New victims have filed civil lawsuits since a new law was passed in May 2013 allowing victims age 24 or older a three-year window to sue for their past abuse.

Thursday’s cases revealed a new perpetrator previously not disclosed by church officials or named as a defendant in other cases: Father Ramon Jerome Buckley, of Sacred Heart Parish in Robbinsdale. Buckley is accused of abusing a 12-year-old altar boy in the late 1970s at church, in addition to Father John McGrath abusing the same boy. The alleged double-perpetrator abuse included forced oral sex by both priests and attempted anal rape by McGrath.

“The carnage from these cases is staggering,”