Clergy Sex Abuse Jury Trial Moved to July 2022 Due to Scheduling Error

By Nicole Maxwell
Alamogordo Daily News
February 22, 2021

https://www.alamogordonews.com/story/news/local/community/2021/02/22/clergy-sex-abuse-jury-trial-moved-july-2022-due-scheduling-error/4513577001/

The case alleging complicity in the rape of a child against several Catholic entities scheduled to begin in December 2021 was moved to July 2022.

The case was originally scheduled to go to jury trial on December 13, 2021, but that trial date was canceled due to a scheduling error, court records show.

A pre-trial conference is set for June 9, 2022 in front of New Mexico Second Judicial District Judge Daniel Ramczyk with the jury trial expected to begin at 8 a.m. on July 11, 2022.

The case was filed by a John Doe against several parishes, dioceses and the Servants of the Paraclete alleging each were complicit in allowing Fr. David Holley, who moved to Alamogordo in the 1970s, to sexually abuse the complainant.

Holley was sent to the Albuquerque Servants of the Paraclete facility in 1971 so that he could get help for pedophilic tendencies.

Holley was eventually relocated to what is now St. Jude Catholic Parish in Alamogordo.

At the time, the church was St. Jude Mission Church.

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Doe claimed abuse by Holley and another priest, Fr. Wilfred Diamond in the 1970s.

Although Holley was not assigned to either Alamogordo parish at the time, he did live across the street from a Catholic school in Alamogordo, court records state.

Doe filed the suit on March 31, 2020 and it alleged negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, vicarious liability, public nuisance and racketeering by the defendants in the case.

Holley was convicted of child sexual penetration in a 12th Judicial District Court in 1993 and died in 2008. Holley was sentenced to up to 275 years in prison in that case.

Diamond died in 1995.

Defendants named in the suit are the Servants of the Paraclete, St. Jude Parish, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church and the Dioceses of Worcester, El Paso and Las Cruces as parties in the lawsuit.

All defendants in the case have denied allegations and have asked for the case to be dismissed.

Help for victims of child sexual abuse

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, also known as SNAP, is the oldest and largest support group for those wounded by religious authority figures. Holley victim Phil Saviano who was abused by Holley in Douglas, Massachusetts in the Worcester Diocese in the 1960s founded the SNAP New England chapter.

Anyone with any knowledge of sexual abuse incidents is advised to call their local police department and then the Diocese of Las Cruces Victim Coordinator Yvonne Bower at ybower@rcdlc.org or call 575-523-7577.

Nicole Maxwell can be contacted by email at nmaxwell@alamogordonews.com, by phone at 575-415-6605 or on Twitter at @nicmaxreporter.