MILWAUKEE (WI)
WISN
MILWAUKEE — A federal judge has dismissed nine sexual abuse claims challenged by church leaders in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy case, eliminating the largest group of claims to date among more than 500 filed in the four-year long litigation.
In seven of the claims, U.S. District Judge Susan Kelley ruled Wednesday the claimants failed to show evidence of fraud. In the two others that were tossed, Kelley said the cases had previously been dismissed by state courts.
As for the remaining case, the judge ruled there’s evidence the archdiocese may have known as early as the 1950s that the Rev. Lawrence Murphy was molesting boys at St. John’s School for the Deaf in Milwaukee and failed to remove him.
Kelley said that such disputes over facts must be litigated rather than dismissed on summary judgment as the archdiocese had asked.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.