By Beth Miller
The News Journal [Delaware]
July 12, 2007
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070712/NEWS/70712029
A former Naval lieutenant who is a supervisory staff attorney for the U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta filed a lawsuit in federal court today against the Diocese of Wilmington, its bishop, St. Elizabeth's Catholic Church, and former Delaware Catholic priest Francis G. DeLuca.
The lawsuit is the first under a new law signed Monday by Gov. Ruth Ann Minner that eliminates the civil statute of limitations in cases of child sexual abuse, and opens a two-year legal window during which victims whose cases had previously been barred by Delaware's two-year limit can file suit.
In the lawsuit, Robert Quill claims DeLuca sexually abused him at least 300 times when he was between 13 and 19 years old.
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| Former Delaware Catholic priest Francis G. DeLuca. |
"Due to the injuries caused by DeLuca, the federal Office of Personnel Management and the Social Security Administration have found Quill to be permanently totally disabled," according to a release from Quill's attorney, Thomas S. Neuberger. Quill "suffers from depression, PTSD, isolation, and the inability to form successful relationships with men or women or even his family.
Quill is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, "including $2.5 million in wage and pension loss, for his premature forced retirement from federal service as a distinguished supervisory staff attorney for the court."
"My client is the first of many who our General Assembly unanimously decided are now able to seek legal relief for the unspeakable horror and ruined lives inflicted upon them by DeLuca and the Roman Catholic Church," Neuberger said.
Delaware's civil statute of limitations law for child sex abuse is the strongest in the nation, according to New York law professor Marci Hamilton, edging California by doubling that state's one-year window. About 1,000 previously barred cases were revived in California after its law went into effect in 2003.
DeLuca, 77, who was a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington for 35 years, was arrested in October and charged with sexually abusing a Syracuse, N.Y., teen over a period of five or six years.
Syracuse police say DeLuca confessed after they arrested him.
After DeLuca's arrest, Wilmington Bishop Michael Saltarelli released the names of 20 priests against whom the diocese had substantiated allegations of child sexual abuse.
DeLuca's arrest was cited recently by Bishop Richard Malone of Portland, Maine, as his reason for releasing the names of four priests who had been removed from ministry for similar reasons. Their cases have been pending in Rome since before 2002, Malone said, and he wanted the names made public to prevent other offenses. In 2002, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted a new policy of making substantive allegations against clergy public.
Contact Beth Miller at 324-2784 or bmiller@delawareonline.com
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