Catholic Church in Minnesota Settles Sex-Abuse Claim

By Tom Corrigan And Ben Kesling
Wall Street Journal
October 13, 2014

http://online.wsj.com/articles/sex-abuse-case-settled-as-new-legal-theory-is-offered-1413215605

MINNEAPOLIS—The Catholic Church in Minnesota and a lawyer for victims of sexual abuse on Monday announced the settlement in the first-of-its-kind lawsuit claiming that clergy abuse and subsequent inaction by church leadership constituted a “public nuisance.”

The settlement also laid out wide-ranging protocols aimed at requiring greater disclosure and better protection of children, according to victims’ lawyers, and the case could open the door to more easily prosecute abusers in the future.

The public nuisance argument is “something that has not been used in the past,” said Mike Finnegan, an attorney for the victims. “It absolutely sets a precedent.”

This is also the first suit in the state filed since the Minnesota Child Victims Act, passed by the Minnesota legislature in 2013, expanded the statute of limitations for sexual-abuse cases.

Jeff Anderson, a lawyer representing the man who filed the lawsuit, joined other abuse victims and church officials in St. Paul on Monday to announce a 17-point protocol that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona, Minn., have agreed to implement to protect children from abuse.