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	Court Upholds Punitive Damages against Church in Sex Case United Press International March 24, 1992 The Minnesota Court of Appeals, acting in the case of a Catholic priest accused of sexually molesting a teenage boy, ruled Tuesday that churches can be forced to pay punitive damages. The court, in its 2-1 decision, also affirmed an Anoka County District Court judge's decision to reduce the punitive damages in the case of the Rev. Thomas Adamson from the $2.7 million awarded by a jury to $187,000. The plaintiff in the case, a 26-year-old Columbia Heights man who was 13 at the time of the abuse began, also was awarded $855,000 in compensatory damages that were not challenged in the appeal. The case marked the first time the Roman Catholic Church in the Unites States had been held liable for punitive damages, said Jeffrey Anderson, the victim's attorney. Anderson said he will ask the Minnesota Supreme Court to review the reduction of punitive damages by Anoka District Judge Phyllis Jones, saying the $187,000 "is really no punishment at all." Archbishop John Roach said that while officials of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis are pleased that the higher punitive damages did not stand, the archdiocese will consider asking the Supreme Court to review whether churches are exempt from punitive damages because the isue is important to all churches. The archdiocese claimed punitive damages against churches violate the constitutional guarantees of religious freedom and separation of church and state. The Anoka County jury had decided in December 1990 that the archdiocese and the Diocese of Winona showed "willful indifference or deliberate lack of concern" for the rights and safety of others. The abuse by Adamson began in 1979, shortly after the priest was assigned to Immaculate Conception Church in Columbia Heights, a Minneapolis suburb, and continued until 1987. Anderson charged that church officials repeatedly transferred Adamson to other parishes, where he could have contact with more boys, despite knowing about his sexual abuse. Anderson has filed 12 lawsuits on behalf of alleged victims of the priest and claims he has identified at least 35 victims. The Anoka County case is the only one to go to trial and six others have been settled. In ruling that churches are not exempt from punitive damages, Judge Thomas Kalitowski wrote," The repeated placement of Adamson in parishes without restriction arguably condoned acts of licentious behavior and justified practices inconsistent with the peace and safety of the state. "
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