Fr. Michael J. Simpson

From Ireland. A woman filed suit 2005 accusing Simpson of abuse of several girls in early 1960s. Three more women filed suits in 6/2006 claiming abuse as young girls. Diocese settled four cases in 1/2008 for $200K. Simpson was known as a chronic alcoholic and had to sign a sobriety oath before working in the diocese. He died in Ireland in 1977. New suit in 9/2018 alleges Simpson and another (unnamed) priest sexually abused a girl for ten years, beginning when she was age five, in the late 1950s into the 1960s at St. Aloysius in Toppenish. She said the abuse by Simpson began when he replaced the other priest around 1960, and she was in about third grade. The abuse allegedly included rape, resulted in a miscarried pregnancy when the girl was 12, and ended when he left the parish when she was 14 . On the diocese’s list 7/9/2019. Per the diocese’s list updated in 11/2021, a 2019 lawsuit settled and the abuse was not substantiated.