VERMONT/NEW YORK
Burlington Free Press
Written by
SAM HEMINGWAY
Free Press Staff Writer
The Albany, N.Y., Roman Catholic Diocese is disputing a Vermont federal judge’s decision to allow a case to proceed involving claims a New York priest abused a youth during trips to Vermont in the 1980s.
In papers filed at U.S. District Court in Burlington earlier this month, the New York diocese claims that federal court in Vermont lacks authority to preside over the case.
The lawsuit was filed in 2011 by a New York man who claims he was molested repeatedly as a young boy by the Rev. Gary J. Mercure of Albany, N.Y., during visits to Vermont.
The Burlington Free Press does not publish the names of victims of alleged sex crimes without their permission.
Mercure is serving a 20-year sentence in Massachusetts for sexually assaulting two former altar boys, including the victim in the Vermont case, during ski trips. He has been banished from priestly duties by the diocese but has not been defrocked.
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