ALAMOGORDO (NM)
Alamogordo Daily News [Alamogordo NM]
October 6, 2021
By Nicole Maxwell
The child sexual abuse case filed by a John Doe, an alleged victim of Fr. David Holley when he was in Alamogordo in the 1970s, needs more time to reach mediation.
A motion filed in the case on Sept. 30 requests a time extension to set up mediation between Doe and the defendants Servants of the Paraclete, the Dioceses of Las Cruces, El Paso and Worcester and two Alamogordo parishes.
The motion asks Second Judicial District Judge Daniel Ramczyk to give both parties more time to participate in a mediation.
The motion “respectfully moves to extend the deadline currently set for the parties to participate in mediation due to difficulties in scheduling a complex mediation amongst all counsel and to complete the mediation currently scheduled for January 20, 2022,” the motion states.
The two Alamogordo parishes are Immaculate Conception Parish and St. Jude Parish.
On February 17, 2021, the court ordered that the parties settle the case by mediation by Sept. 30.
This deadline was not met due to scheduling problems and “locating an appropriate mediator for this matter and coordinating with schedules of not only mediators, but also the numerous parties and their counsel in this matter proved to be more difficult than the parties anticipated,” the motion states.
The parties in the case have agreed on a mediator and have agreed meeting to mediate the case on January 20, 2022.
The case is expected to go to trial in July 2022, according to court documents.
The case is about Doe, an alleged victim of the late Fr. Holley. Doe alleges that each defendant was complicit in his abuse.
Doe claimed abuse by Holley and another priest, Fr. Wilfred Diamond in the 1970s.
Although Holley was not assigned to either Alamogordo parish at the time, he did live across the street from a Catholic school in Alamogordo, court records state.
On March 31, 2020, Doe filed the suit which alleged negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, vicarious liability, public nuisance and racketeering by the defendants in the case.
All defendants in the case have denied allegations and have asked for the case to be dismissed.
Holley was a priest in the Diocese of Worcester, Massachusetts. He was sent to the Servants of the Paraclete rehabilitation facility in Albuquerque before being sent to Alamogordo.
He was not an active priest in Alamogordo however he and Diamond lived across the street from a Catholic school.
Holley was convicted of child sexual penetration in a 12th Judicial District Court in 1993 and died in 2008. Holley was sentenced to up to 275 years in prison in that case.
Diamond died in 1995.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, also known as SNAP, is the oldest and largest support group for those wounded by religious authority figures. Holley victim Phil Saviano who was abused by Holley in Douglas, Massachusetts in the Worcester Diocese in the 1960s founded the SNAP New England chapter.
Anyone with any knowledge of sexual abuse incidents is advised to call their local police department and then the Diocese of Las Cruces Victim Coordinator Yvonne Bower at ybower@rcdlc.org or call 575-523-7577.
Nicole Maxwell can be contacted by email at nmaxwell@alamogordonews.com, by phone at 575-415-6605 or on Twitter at @nicmaxreporter.