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  Jurors Mulling Priest Sex Abuse Case in Belleville

By AP
WTHI

August 27, 2008

http://www.wthitv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8910861&nav=menu593_2

BELLEVILLE, Ill. (AP) - A St. Clair County jury is deliberating the case of a man suing the Diocese of Belleville over sexual abuse he says he suffered at the hands of a priest in the 1970s.

James Wisniewski's (wihs-NOO'-skee's) attorney asked jurors to award more than $5 million in damages to his client.

Wisniewski, of Champaign, says he was an altar boy when the Reverend Raymond Kownacki allegedly molested him, and says the diocese covered up the abuse, shuffling Kownacki from parish to parish.

Former Belleville Bishop Wilton Gregory testified that key documents about Kownacki were kept from him. Gregory removed Kownacki from the active ministry in 1995.

Wisniewski testified that Kownacki sexually abused him 40 or 50 times and threatened to kill his parents if he told anyone.

Kownacki isn't charged criminally.

 
 

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