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Court: No Evidence Diocese Concealed Abuse

Houston Chronicle
November 12, 2013

http://www.chron.com/news/article/Court-No-evidence-diocese-concealed-abuse-4978556.php

A Maine man who claimed the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland knew about allegations against a priest who sexually abused him in the 1980s lost his appeal to the state supreme court on Tuesday.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court upheld a judgment against William Picher of Augusta, who contended the priest's supervisors knew he was an abuser but failed to intervene.

The state supreme court said the 39-year-old Picher failed to prove "fraudulent concealment," finding that there was nothing to prove church leaders were aware that the Rev. Raymond Melville had sexually abused minors during the period in which Picher was abused.

Melville, who left the priesthood in 1997, was previously ordered to pay $4.2 million to Picher.

Picher contended he was abused as a boy when he was a student at St. Mary's School in Augusta between September 1986 and June 1988, when Melville was assigned to the parish.

 

 

 

 

 




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