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  Clergy Abuse Attorney Meets with Victims

By Tom Murray and Michele Fiore
WTMJ
June 4, 2011

http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/123160348.html

[with video]

WAUWATOSA - Minnesota attorney Jeff Anderson is taking on the Vatican with his client, Terry Kohut.

Kohut, who now lives in Illinois, is the alleged victim named as John Doe on the lawsuit filing. He claims Pope Benedict, in a former role as a cardinal, knew about abuse at St. John's School for the Deaf in Milwaukee and did not thing to intervene.

"I am speaking for most of the survivors, for all of the survivors all over the world," Kohut told TODAY'S TMJ4 reporter Tom Murray through a sign language interpreter. "I told my sins to Father Murphy and he told me that I had to go to his office. So, I did go to his office and Father Murphy told me to take off my pants."

Anderson held a clergy abuse forum at a Wauwatosa hotel on Saturday.

"The Archdiocese of Milwaukee and the problems and the cover up in it is the worst of, as bad as any place in the entire country," Anderson said.

Anderson says he is also representing more than 100 people with clergy abuse claims against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Because of bankruptcy protections, there will soon be a time when courts will allow no more abuse lawsuits against the archdiocese. Archbishop Jerome Listecki emphasized that looming deadline when he announced the bankruptcy filing in January.

"We're talking about bankruptcy through the aspect of closure," Listecki said in an interview at the time.

TODAY'S TMJ4 asked Anderson if he is in Wisconsin seeking more clients to sue the Archdiocese of Milwaukee before the court closes the door.

"It's our legal and moral obligation to reach them and let them know that something more can be done," Anderson responded.

A deadline has not been set for filing lawsuits, but a federal judge is expected to determine that date soon.

 
 

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