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	Judge Hears Arguments in Priest Abuse Civil Suit Fairbanks News-Miner [Alaska] June 8, 2006 http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~3326883,00.html First arguments were heard Monday in Nome regarding a statute of limitations clerical sex abuse civil suit that was dismissed earlier this year. Nome Superior Court Judge Ben Esch had dismissed the lawsuit against the Fairbanks Catholic Diocese and the Society of Jesus in February. The civil suit contends the church and the Jesuits were negligent in supervising the Rev. James Poole who is accused repeatedly sexually abusing of a woman, named Jane Doe 2 in court documents, when she was a girl. Esch ruled that the time frame to meet the statute of limitations was not met in the case. State law says the statute of limitations for criminal offenses committed against children 16 and under runs out three years after discovery of the injury, and for crimes committed against children after the age of 16, charges must be brought within two years of the victim's 18th birthday. The ruling could possibly affect more than 100 claims of sexual abuse against minors in Alaska in which statute of limitations arguments are a key element. The judge's reconsideration came in response to motions made in March by the woman's attorneys, Ken Roosa of Anchorage and John Manly of Costa Mesa, Calif. The lawyers asked Esch to withhold judgment and reconsider his ruling to dismiss the case and bring the case to trial and to impose sanctions against the Jesuits for not producing thousands of documents pertaining to Poole in a timely manner. Arguments heard Monday revolved around those motions.
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