MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio
Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. May 28, 2014
A former top official of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis contradicted Archbishop John Nienstedt’s account of how top officials responded to a sexual abuse claim against a Catholic priest, according to sworn testimony made public today.
The Rev. Peter Laird described the flurry of decisions made in June 2012 when the chancery learned that the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer had been accused of sexually abusing a child. Laird said he kept Nienstedt informed of the situation as it unfolded, according to a transcript of his May 12, 2014 deposition released by victims’ attorney Jeff Anderson. Nienstedt has said under oath that he did not talk to Laird.
The testimony of Laird and other archdiocesan officials was provided as part of a lawsuit filed by a man who says he was sexually abused by the Rev. Thomas Adamson in the mid-1970s. The man alleges the archdiocese and the Diocese of Winona created a public nuisance by keeping information on accused priests secret. The man’s attorneys, Anderson and Mike Finnegan, argued that the deposition could provide evidence of a pattern of deception by the archdiocese.
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Laird’s explanation for the decisions on Wehmeyer also contradicts the testimony of two other officials.
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