Green Bay Diocese Not Liable in Nevada Sex Case

By Paul Srubas
Green Bay Press-Gazette
May 29, 2015

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/local/2015/05/29/green-bay-catholic-diocese-not-liable-in-nevada-sex-case/28155475/

Former Catholic priest John P. Feeney during a 2004 appearance in Outagamie County Circuit Court.

A Nevada man who claimed he was molested by a former Freedom priest is not entitled to compensation from the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The case involved a lawsuit filed by "John Doe 119," who claimed the former Rev. John P. Feeney molested him in 1984 in Las Vegas. The lawsuit states the man was 13 when he was assaulted by Feeney, but it was not until around 2008 that Doe recognized that he had psychological trauma as a result of Feeney's acts. Doe sued the diocese for negligence in hiring and retaining Feeney.

In the lawsuit, Doe claimed Feeney, a pastor in Las Vegas at the time of the assault, was still an agent of the diocese, that the diocese was aware Feeney had molested children in Wisconsin and that it negligently failed to warn others that he was a danger.

Doe won his case in a lower court in Clark County, Nev., where a jury in 2012 awarded him $500,000 in compensation from the diocese, according to a report by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The state Supreme Court decision reverses that.

"We are grateful to the Nevada Supreme Court for taking up these matters and providing rulings consistent with Nevada law," said Deacon Tim Reilly, the Green Bay diocese's director of administration. "This ruling confirms our argument that the Clark County District Court judge made significant errors in judgment regarding pre-trial legal motions in this case. The Supreme Court confirmed that this case never should have gone to trial."

The Nevada Supreme Court ruled that the lower court had no jurisdiction over the Green Bay diocese, nor was Feeney still under diocesan control or overseen by the diocese in his day-to-day work in Nevada.

The lower court found the diocese had given Feeney a positive letter of recommendation. The Supreme Court ruled that the letter had gone to a diocese in California, where Feeney was a priest before he moved to Nevada. Feeney's application in Nevada resulted in the letter's transmission to the Diocese of Reno-Las Vegas.

"Such unilateral acts on the part of a third party cannot create jurisdiction over a defendant," the court ruled.

The plaintiff in the case did receive a settlement from the Diocese of Las Vegas before the Diocese of Green Bay trial, Reilly said.

Feeney was convicted in Outagamie County Circuit Court in 2004 and sentenced to prison on four sexual assault counts involving brothers Troy and Todd Merryfield, who were ages 12 and 14 when they were assaulted in 1978. The Merryfields, who at the time attended religious education courses at St. Nicholas Church in Freedom, sued the diocese and were awarded $700,000 by an Outagamie County jury in May 2012.

Reilly said the Green Bay diocese has implemented policies designed to keep children safe. They include mandatory background checks and abuse training for all staff and volunteers — about 26,000 people in all of the parishes, schools and diocesan offices. The diocese also bars ministry for any clergy with a credible allegation of abuse of a minor against him, Reilly said.

The diocese has a mandatory reporting policy for all credible allegations of abuse, he said.

The diocese includes 157 parishes across 16 counties, including Brown and Outagamie counties.