BishopAccountability.org
	Anoka, Minn. United Press International November 3, 1990 Two Catholic dioceses admitted that they are partly responsible for severe psychological damage suffered by a 24- year-old Minneapolis man who was sexually abused when he was a teenager by a priest. An Anoka County District Court jury heard opening arguments in the case Friday. Testimony will begin Monday. John Hoffman, representing the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis, told the jury that the church's monitoring of the Rev. Thomas Adamson and restrictions placed on his activities after the allegations surfaced were not effective. Hoffman said that church officials had information about alleged contact between Adamson and teenage boys after those restrictions were imposed, but did not check the information. "We could have, we should have, but we didn't," Hoffman said. One of the church's mistakes was believing Adamson when he denied the allegations, Hoffman said. He and George Restovich, representing the Diocese of Winona, admitted that both church bodies are guilty of negligence and said they will pay damages. But they denied that the dioceses were guilty of willfully employing an unfit priest. The case in which the young man is seeking damages from the Twin Cities archdiocese and the Winona diocese is only the third case of sexual abuse by a priest to come to trial in the country, according to the victim's attorney, Jeffrey Anderson. It also is the first case anywhere in which a judge has allowed a sexual abuse victim to seek punitive damages from the Catholic Church, he said. The case was one of six sexual abuse cases filed against Adamson, 57, who served parishes in southern Minnesota and the Twin Cities from 1961 to 1984. Four have been settled and one is pending in Ramsey County District Court. Adamson now lives in Wisconsin and no longer functions as a priest. His attorney, Theodore Collins, said Adamson accepts full responsibility for his actions and will not deny any of the allegations raised in the trial.
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