2 Abuse Cases Vs. Phoenix Diocese Advance

By Michael Clancy
The Arizona Republic
December 9, 2013

http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/20131204phoenix-diocese-abuse-cases-advance.html?nclick_check=1



Two cases alleging sexual abuse by clergy members in the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix are slowly working their way through Arizona courts.

One case, filed in 2010, is scheduled to go to trial in March in Yavapai County Superior Court. It was filed on behalf of a Cottonwood woman whose son allegedly was abused by a Catholic deacon, Maxwell Rollin Pelton, who worked at Immaculate Conception Parish in Cottonwood.

The other is in Maricopa County Superior Court while the diocese awaits a Vatican determination in the case against the Rev. John Spaulding, who served in several local parishes.

In the Yavapai case, Pelton was awaiting final criminal charges when he died of natural causes in police custody.