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  A St. Paul Park, Minn.

United Press International
February 3, 1987

A St. Paul Park, Minn., man has filed a lawsuit against a priest and Catholic Church officials, claiming the priest sexually abused him while he was a boy.

Gregory Riedle, now an adult, was joined by his parents, John and Janet Riedle, in seeking $200,000 in damages. The suit, filed Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court, named the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Winona, Minn., Diocese as defendants.

The priest involved is the Rev. Thomas Adamson who served at several parishes in the Winona diocese and in the Twin Cities area from the early 1960s until the early 1980s.

The St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese issued a statement, voicing regret over the alleged sexual abuse. Church officials said Father Adamson is no longer serving as a priest.

In the complaint the younger Riedle said he was abused while an altar boy at the church of St. Thomas Aquinas in St. Paul Park. Riedle said the abuse started in 1977 when he was 13 years old and continued over a two-year period.

The complaint said Riedle first reported the abuse to a counselor while at St. Cloud State Prison.

The lawsuit says the church knew of the priest's abuse of a number of boys over several year and was negligent in allowing him to continue in parish work.

According to the complaint, Adamson first engaged in sexual contact with an adolescent boy while serving at St. Adrian's Church in Adrian, Minn., in 1961 or 1962 with the relationship continuing until about 1973. It was claimed that he "solicited and/or engaged in sexual contact with other minor boys" in Adrian and later while serving in Calendonia, Minn., and in Rochester, Minn.

While in the Twin Cities, the complaint said, Adamson was treated by a psychiatrist and took in-patient treatment at St. Mary's Hospital, Minneapolis.

Also for several months in 1985, Adamson received treatment at the Servants of the Paraclete in St. Louis.

The complaint said Riedle and his parents "suffered severe and permanent emotional distress."

 
 

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