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	Bishop Says Private Probe Clears Him of Abuse Claim Catholic Online June 9, 2006 http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=20151 Spokane, Wash. – Spokane Bishop William S. Skylstad has said that an investigation he ordered produced no evidence to support an unnamed woman's allegation that he sexually abused her 40 years ago when she was a minor. Bishop Skylstad communicated the probe's results June 8 at a news conference in answer to a reporter's question but he did not elaborate. "The bishop could not have been and was not involved with this girl," Thomas Frey, the bishop's personal lawyer, told Catholic News Service June 9. "The diocese will not pay any claim to her," said Frey, who hired the private investigator who looked into the woman's allegations. "To my knowledge there has been no investigation by public authorities," he said, noting that the statute of limitations has expired. Frey said that the woman's claim was filed at the end of 2005 and is among the numerous clergy child sex abuse claims made against the diocese after it filed for bankruptcy protection in November 2004. After the woman's claim was made public by news organizations in March, Frey said that he hired a private investigator. Frey would not release the name of the investigator but said that he is a retired police officer who was in a sexual assault unit and has investigated sex abuse allegations for other church groups and organizations. The bishop, 72, has maintained his innocence since the allegation became public. The alleged abuse occurred in the early 1960s when then-Father Skylstad was a full-time teacher at Mater Cleri Seminary in Colbert, north of Spokane. Several news organizations have reported that the woman now lives in Europe. The June 8 news conference was called to announce a proposed settlement with one of the diocese's insurers, Oregon Auto Insurance Co., by which the insurer will pay the diocese $6 million to end litigation as to whether the insurer is liable for child sex abuse claims against the diocese. The company issued policies to the diocese in the 1970s. The agreement needs to be approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams and the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Washington, which is scheduled to hear a diocesan appeal of the bankruptcy judge's ruling that parish properties belong to the diocese and can be sold to pay sex abuse claims. Approval of the agreement with Oregon Auto would bring to $16 million the sum of money diocesan insurers would provide to pay claims.
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