Sexual Abuse Case Filed against Catholic Diocese

By Brad Carl
KULR
January 3, 2012

http://www.kulr8.com/news/local/Victim-of-Alleged-Sexual-Abuse-Files-Suit-Against-Catholic-Diocese-136547788.html

[with video]

[the lawsuit]


A Northern Cheyenne tribal member files a lawsuit against the Great Falls / Billings Catholic Diocese claiming she was abused as a child by a Catholic priest.

The woman says the abuse took place in the late 1950s and early 60s at the St. Labre Mission School in Ashland. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages from the Diocese, the Order of Friars Minor, the Capuchin Order and the school. Reverend Emmett Hoffmann is not named as a defendant, but is identified as the reason for the suit. The attorney for the woman, who is now in her 60s, says she wants to stand up to the man who abused her.

"One of the principle things we want to see is the acknowledgement by the diocese and also from the Capuchin Order of Assistant Friars, of the abuse that my client suffered," said her attorney Vito de la Cruz.

Hoffman, who retired in 1993, is 85 years old and lives in a retirement home in Ashland.