Breaking News: Settlement reached in priest sex abuse trial

By Chris Regnier
Fox 2
July 7, 2014

http://fox2now.com/2014/07/07/trial-begins-monday-in-former-st-louis-priest-sexual-abuse-case/

ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI) – There is a major development in the case of a defrocked priest accused of sexual abuse.

FOX 2 has learned attorneys in the case have agreed upon a settlement.   Jury selection was set to begin at 8 a.m.  Monday morning.   The Archdiocese of St. Louis plans to hold a news conference at 9 a.m.  To stream it live visit: archstl.org/trial

Ross was the first priest in the St. Louis Archdiocese to be defrocked for sexually abusing minors.  He plead guilty to sexually assaulting an 11- year-old University City boy in 1988 and received two years probation.  The case today involves a woman now in her 20`s. The woman says that Ross sexually abused her from 1997 to 2001 while he was a priest at St. Cronan`s Parish in south city.  The alleged abuse started when she was just five- years-old.
Criminal charges were originally filed in this case but they were dropped in 2010.  As part of this case, The Missouri Supreme Court ordered the Archdiocese of St. Louis to turn over the names of more than 100 suspected pedophile priests between 1983 and 2003.

Lawyers for the woman in the case want the information to try and show that for decades the St. Louis Archdiocese covered up predator priests.

Authorities say this is only the second sexual abuse case against a St. Louis Catholic priest to make it to trial and it`s the first since 1999.