MILWAUKEE (WI)
Sheboygan Press
Written by
M.L. Johnson
Associated Press
MILWAUKEE — A clergy sexual abuse victim who received $80,000 from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee during mediation cannot seek additional compensation in bankruptcy court, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
The archdiocese is being sued for fraud in federal bankruptcy court by hundreds of victims who say it transferred problem priests to new churches without warning parishioners and covered up priests’ crimes for decades. Those victims include a number who previously settled with the archdiocese, and the latest decision could affect their cases as well.
According to court documents, the man was abused by Lawrence Murphy, a priest who served at St. John’s School for the Deaf in Milwaukee. Murphy, who died in 1998, has been accused of molesting hundreds of boys at the school.
It is not clear when the man reported the abuse. Former Milwaukee archbishop and New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan established the mediation program in 2003 after the national clergy sexual abuse scandal erupted. The archdiocese settled with hundreds of victims through that program. Most received about $50,000, along with therapy costs.
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