MINNESOTA
Star Tribune
Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: August 20, 2014
Jon Jaker, who was abused as an 11-year-old boy in a St. Paul parish, has reached the first legal settlement with the archdiocese.
A man who was sexually abused by a Catholic priest in the 1970s became the first to reach a settlement with the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese Monday under a new law that temporarily expands the time period in which such clergy abuse lawsuits can be brought to court.
Jon Jaker had sued the archdiocese last year, charging he had been sexually abused more than 10 times by the now-deceased Rev. Thomas Stitts while serving as an altar boy at St. Leo’s Church in St. Paul. He said he was 11 years old when sexually molested by Stitts, who has been accused by at least a dozen others over the past year.
“This has been a long battle,” said Jaker, at a news conference in the offices of Minneapolis attorney Patrick Noaker.
”I would encourage other victims and survivors to come forward,” he said. “Know that you are not alone. There are hundreds of you still in the shadows. There’s a chorus of us building as strong survivors. I want that chorus to grow.”
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