Diocese Reacts to Sexual Abuse Lawsuit

MONTANA
KFBB

[with video]

By Charlie Keegan

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Great Falls-Billings is reacting to a recent lawsuit filed against it. The civil suit claims a priest sexually assaulted a girl in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Paperwork says Father Emmett Hoffman sexually abused the plaintiff when she was a student at the St. Labre Mission School in Ashland.

She is seeking an unspecified amount of monetary damages and wants the defendants to acknowledge the abuse and pain the alleged assault has caused her.

Greg Hatley, an attorney for the diocese, says he hasn’t been formally served yet.

In the early 1990’s, the diocese formed a victim’s assistance position for victims of sexual abuse by the clergy. Hatley says the plaintiff did not file a report in that system.

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