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  Former Bishop Wants Judge Removed from Sex Abuse Lawsuits

Associated Press, carried in Des Moines Register [Iowa]
September 27, 2005

A former Roman Catholic Bishop accused of sexually abusing minors as a priest and principal in eastern Iowa wants the judge assigned to his case replaced.

Attorneys for former Bishop Lawrence Soens, who retired as Bishop in the Sioux City Diocese in 1998, is defending allegations in at least two lawsuits that he molested minors 40 years ago while serving as principal at Regina High School, a Catholic school in Iowa City.

Through his lawyer, Soens has denied the allegations, which accuse him of ordering students to private meetings in his principal's office where he engaged in improper sexual conduct.

In motions filed recently in Scott County District Court, Soens seeks to have Judge C.H. Pelton disqualified and a new judge appointed to the cases.

Pelton was appointed last year to preside over the consolidation of more than 30 sexual abuse lawsuits involving priests from the Davenport Diocese, none of which named Soens.

Most of those cases were resolved before trial when the diocese agreed to pay $9 million to settle 37 lawsuits. Pelton also presided over a pair of jury trials involving two different priests. In both cases, the jury awarded monetary damages to the victims.

But Soens contends Pelton should be replaced claiming key rulings he made in those cases were wrong.

''Assuming that Judge Pelton will take the same approach in these cases, Defendants believe that they cannot obtain a fair trial unless a replacement judge is appointed,'' according to a motion filed by attorneys for Soens, the high school and Davenport Diocese.

Specifically, defense attorneys targeted Pelton's interpretation of Iowa's statute of limitations and the favorable impact it had on the victims' cases.

Last year, the diocese argued that the lawsuits should be dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired. The diocese argued the victims waited too long — in some cases more than 40 years — after the abuse occurred to bring their case to court and state law protected the church from such untimely claims.

In response, attorneys for the victims argued that a decades-long efforts by the diocese to cover up the abuse or mental illness experienced by the victims prevented them from filing lawsuits sooner — in effect nullifying the statute of limitations.

In several rulings, Pelton concluded that a jury should decide whether the victims qualify for exemptions in the statute. Defense attorneys appealed to The Iowa Supreme Court, but the justices refused to take up the case.

In his motion, Soens' contends Pelton misapplied the law and ignored precedent set by judges overseeing similar statute of limitations questions in priest abuse cases in Iowa and other state and federal courts.

''Defendants are not asserting here that Judge C.H. Pelton is biased toward the plaintiffs and prejudiced against the defendants,'' defense attorneys wrote. ''However, defendants believe that his erroneous rulings on highly important issues are there to stay and that it would be in the interests of justice and judicial economy to assign these cases to a replacement judge.''

Attorneys for the victims say Pelton should stay and said calls for his ouster are an unfounded attack on his credibility.

''To isolate only rulings adverse to the defendants and somehow claim that a judge should be disqualified is without merit,'' wrote Craig Levien, an attorney representing the victims. ''Defendants' motions are thinly disguised efforts to improperly judge shop.''

Soens served as the school's first principal and priest from 1959 to 1967. In 1983, he was appointed by Pope John Paul II as bishop in Sioux City and continues to live there.

 
 

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