CBS News
August 10, 2011
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/08/10/ap/business/main20090672.shtml
 |
| FILE - In this Aug. 21, 2008 file photo, James Wisniewski, 47, of Champaign, Ill., who was sexually abused by a priest in the 1970s, appears at St. Clair County Courthouse in Belleville, Ill. A court hearing is set for Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2011, in Belleville, where an attorney for Wisniewski is expected to get more than $6.3 millioin in payment as part of a lawsuit Wisniewski won against the Diocese of Belleville that had resisted the payout. (AP Photo/Belleville News-Democrat, Derik Holtmann, File) (Derik Holtmann) |
A nine-year legal fight by a man sexually abused by a priest in the 1970s is over, now that a southern Illinois diocese and its insurer have handed over $6.3 million to resolve a jury award in the man's favor.
Attorneys for the Diocese of Belleville turned over the checks during a hearing Wednesday in St. Clair County — three years after James Wisniewski (wihz-NOO'-skee) of Champaign won the $5 million jury award.
The additional $1.33 million includes interest accrued since that verdict.
Wisniewski sued in 2002, alleging that a former priest sexually abused him dozens of times for five years at St. Theresa's Parish in Salem. The lawsuit also claimed the diocese hid the one-time priest's suspected behavior and quietly shuffled him among parishes.
The diocese's attorneys declined comment.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.