MISSOURI
KCTV
By DeAnn Smith, Digital Content Manager
By Heather Staggers, Reporter
INDEPENDENCE, MO (KCTV) –
The parents of a boy who committed suicide 30 years ago after he was allegedly abused by a Catholic priest will receive $2.25 million to settle their lawsuit.
Jury selection began Monday in a Jackson County courtroom, and opening arguments were slated to start as soon as Tuesday. The settlement was announced Monday afternoon.
Donald and Rosemary Teeman alleged that their 14-year-old son, Brian, committed suicide in 1983 after repeated abuse by Monsignor Thomas O’Brient at Nativity of Mary Parish in Independence. The parents sued in 2011 after a former altar boy disclosed the repeated abuse, which the now 86-year-old priest denied along with other abuse allegations.
The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph unsuccessfully sought to have the lawsuit thrown out because so much time had passed since the alleged abuse. But a judge found that the case could go forward because the diocese had sought to cover up the allegations. …
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said the diocese settled because the details of the cover up of the diocese’s knowledge of years of abuse by O’Brien would have been made public during a trial.
“We are grateful to the Teeman family for their courage and for putting aside their pain in order to protect others,” SNAP said in a statement. “Church officials may pretend this settlement is to spare this family pain but cases like this are often settled on the eve of a trial in order to protect how much they knew and how little they did to protect children.”
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