Green Bay diocese not liable in Nevada sex case

A Nevada man who claimed he was molested by a former Freedom priest is not entitled to compensation from the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The case involved a lawsuit filed by "John Doe 119," who claimed the former Rev. John P. Feeney molested him in 1984 in Las Vegas. The lawsuit states the man was 13 when he was assaulted by Feeney, but it was not until around 2008 that Doe recognized that he had psychological trauma as a result of Feeney's acts. Doe sued the diocese for negligence in hiring and retaining Feeney.

In the lawsuit, Doe claimed Feeney, a pastor in Las Vegas at the time of the assault, was still an agent of the diocese, that the diocese was aware Feeney had molested children in Wisconsin and that it negligently failed to warn others that he was a danger. 

continue at GB Press Gazette 

Green Bay Diocese appeals $500,000 sexual abuse award

via Crux

LAS VEGAS – Nevada Supreme Court justices hear oral arguments Tuesday on an appeal by Catholic Church officials of a $500,000 jury award to a man who says he was molested as a 13-year-old by a priest who’d been transferred from Wisconsin to Las Vegas.

The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay argues it can’t be sued in Nevada, that the case should’ve been thrown out before trial, and that the diocese shouldn’t have been held responsible in 2012 for the priest’s actions in 1984.

The priest, John Feeney, was convicted in Wisconsin in 2004, defrocked, and sent to prison for molesting two boys. The Green Bay Diocese paid a $700,000 civil judgment in that case.

The Nevada case stems from allegations that Church officials failed to notify officials in Nevada of Feeney’s past conduct.

Green Bay diocese ordered to pay $500,000 in Nevada civil case

The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay has been ordered to pay a half-million dollars in a civil lawsuit involving a priest accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy.

A Las Vegas jury concluded Thursday the diocese was negligent in transferring John Patrick Feeney to a Nevada parish where he allegedly molested the boy.

The Green Bay Diocese will have to pay a $500,000 in damages; the suit originally sought $5.1 million.  The man in the Las Vegas case says Feeney sexually assaulted him in 1984, when Feeney visited the family’s home while serving the city’s St. Francis De Sales Parish. The man’s attorneys say the Green Bay diocese gave Feeney a good recommendation to the bishop there.

continue at GreenBayPressGazette

HT Brian Schweiss

Case against Green Bay diocese under way in Nevada

A civil trial against the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay is under way in Nevada in a lawsuit filed by a man who says he was molested by the same priest at the center of a similar Outagamie County case.

Jurors heard opening statements Thursday in Las Vegas in the case against the Green Bay diocese and the Roman Catholic Bishop of Las Vegas. The lawsuit claims the diocese knew the Rev. John Feeney had a history of sexual misconduct and falsely portrayed him as safe even though church officials knew he was a danger to children.

Feeney was convicted in Outagamie County in 2004 and sentenced to prison on four sexual assault counts. Feeney assaulted brothers Troy and Todd Merryfield, ages 12 and 14, in 1978. He was transferred from the Fox Valley to Las Vegas in 1984, court records say.

continue at GB PG

Judge denies Catholic Diocese of Green Bay's request to dismiss Merryfield case

I saw this on The Provincial Emails

WLUK reports,

"The Diocese asked Outagamie County Judge Nancy Krueger to throw out the case, using the legal argument known as 'laches' - that the Merryfields waited too long to file the suit and the resulting loss in testimony and evidence has damaged the case such that it isn't fair to try.

"In a ruling filed late Wednesday afternoon, however, Krueger denies the Diocese's request for dismissal."

(via Wisconsin Law Journal)

Retrial ordered in civil verdict against Diocese of Green Bay

An Outagamie County judge today granted a new trial to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, concluding a member of the jury that ruled in favor of two childhood victims of sexual assault by a priest was biased.
......

Concerns over jury bias came forward after a juror came forward after a parking lot conversation with peers following trial.

The juror at the center of the bias issue mentioned to peers that a family member had attended St. Therese School in Appleton during the period Feeney was assigned to the church. She questioned whether he could have been a victim of abuse. The juror was also friends with a cousin of the Merryfields’ mother.

John Peterson, an attorney for the brothers, said the juror thought she could be fair and had no information to suggest her relative was a victim of Feeney.

“We always have to rely on the word of the jurors when it comes to the question of bias,” Peterson said.

Krueger expressed dismay about the cost to the parties and the county and said she doesn’t desire a new trial.

“The court must balance the desire for finality of jury deliberations with the constitutional right to a fair trial,” she wrote.

full article at GBPG

Thank God they didn't need to invoke the "ministerial exemption."

Green Bay Diocese claims First Amendment violated for right to assign pedophile to parish

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay says its First Amendment rights protect it from liability in a civil lawsuit filed by two childhood victims of clergy sex abuse.[....I can't believe this]

Brothers Todd and Troy Merryfield were awarded $700,000 in May by an Outagamie County Court that found the diocese committed civil fraud. The brothers claimed the diocese knew of the Rev. John Feeney’s illicit sexual history when it installed him as a priest at Freedom’s St. Nicholas Church and misrepresented him as safe while knowing he was a danger to children.

The Merryfields, then 12 and 14, were molested by Feeney in 1978. Feeney was sentenced to prison in 2004 for the assaults.

Sarah Fry Bruch, an attorney for the diocese, said the jury verdict should be overturned, arguing the court is constitutionally barred from reading any meaning into Feeney’s assignment to a pastoral role. The Merryfields didn’t show evidence the diocese represented Feeney as safe.

“Nor could they, as the assignment of a priest is a canonical act which the civil courts may not evaluate or explain,” she wrote. The First Amendment gives broad latitude to religious organizations in the conduct of their internal affairs.

continue at Post Crescent

.... so hypothetically, said diocese assigns a member of the KKK to an all black parish and he kills several of the parishioners.  Diocese claims that civil lawsuits for their own misconduct do no apply?????  I'm speechless.

Green Bay diocese ruled liable in latest Feeney abuse case

When an Outagamie County jury decided the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay covered up a priest’s history of child molestation, it sent a message to the rest of Wisconsin, an advocate for sexual abuse victims said.

The outcome of Todd and Troy Merryfields’ civil lawsuit against the diocese Monday empowers victims across the state to come forward, said Peter Isely, the Midwest director for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. For others who have reported sexual abuse by priests, this “should increase the pressure to bring these cases to a just resolution.”

“That is always something that occurs when this culture of secrecy ... is pierced and opened by cases like this,” Isely said.

Rev. John Feeney molested the Merryfields in 1978, when they were 12 and 14 years old. In 2004, Feeney was convicted of sexual assault of the brothers. After the criminal trial, the brothers said they learned the priest had a history of similar assaults in the 1960s and 1970s that the diocese knew about and hid from parishioners at St. Nicholas Church in Freedom, which the Merryfields attended

continue at Post Crescent

I didn't see an amount in the article.  Worth checking out this testimony where the vicar general at the time admits to hearing rumors which he ignored. 

Green Bay abuse case could bring Cdl. Maida, Bp. Ricken to the stand

Cardinal Adam Maida

from MKS JS

Jury selection is expected to begin Monday in a fraud trial against the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay after an Outagamie County judge denied the diocese's latest attempt to have the case dismissed.

Two brothers, Troy and Todd Merryfield, sued the diocese in 2008, contending it committed fraud by repeatedly transferring priest John Feeney without telling parishioners about Feeney's history of abuse.

The diocese has said it had no knowledge of abuse and also said the Merryfields have not presented enough evidence to support their claim.

WLUK-TV reported that Circuit Judge Nancy Krueger denied the diocese's latest request to have the case dismissed.

The Merryfields could testify in the case, which is expected to last two weeks. Former Green Bay bishop and now Cardinal Adam Maida - now retired in Detroit - is listed as a potential witness, as are Bishop David Ricken and Bishop Robert Morneau.

Feeney was convicted in 2004 of assaulting the brothers when Feeney was stationed at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Freedom in 1978. Feeney has been defrocked and was recently released from prison.

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Group to sue Green Bay diocese from Fr. Feeney abuse

APPLETON — Attorneys say an attempt to settle the civil lawsuit brought by two sexual assault victims against the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay was unsuccessful as a two-week jury trial draws near.

Outagamie County Judge Nancy Krueger held a motions hearing Monday in the lawsuit filed by brothers Todd and Troy Merryfield stemming from their childhood sexual abuse at the hands of former priest John Feeney.

Krueger considered sanctions Monday against Troy Merryfield for participating in a recent mediation session by telephone instead of in person. Krueger didn't order sanctions, but asked attorneys to discuss the possibility of another mediation session.

"It would be meaningless," said John Peterson, attorney for the brothers.

The trial is scheduled to begin May 14.

The Merryfields, formerly of Freedom, were sexually assaulted by Feeney in the late 1970s.

They say the diocese was fraudulent in failing to inform Freedom's St. Nicholas Catholic Church of Feeney's past, which included church-ordered sexual abuse counseling.

Feeney, 85, was convicted in 2003 of four counts of sexually assaulting the Merryfields, who were 12 and 14 at the time of the abuse.

He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, though was released after serving less than eight years.

GBPG

Feeney has been released to a half-way house late last year, but I do not know if he was released back into the general public yet. 

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