VERMONT
Rutland Herald
By Kevin O’Connor
Staff Writer | June 01,2014
When Vermont’s Catholic Church settled the last of a string of priest misconduct lawsuits a year ago, the final numbers — some 40 child sexual abuse cases in a near-bankrupting 11-year court saga — were immense.
And, until now, incomplete.
The last 12 plaintiffs to file claims against the statewide Roman Catholic Diocese resolved their civil cases in a January 2013 blanket settlement that lacked any public financial figures.
“The diocese has asked us not to specify the amount and we have agreed,” Burlington lawyer Jerome O’Neill, representing all but two of dozens of plaintiffs over the years, said at the time.
But in his new memoir, Dan Gilman of Rutland — who faced repeated abuse as a teenager while he was hospitalized for a paralyzing diving accident — reports the combined 2013 blanket settlement for the final dozen cases to be $6,750,000, with “each claimant’s amount to be decided by a special arbitrator.”
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