MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel
May 23, 2012
Two brothers who won a landmark case this week against the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, for its role in their sexual abuse by a priest in the 1970s, withdrew their bid for punitive damages on Wednesday.
Todd and Troy Merryfield, who were awarded $700,000 by an Outagamie County jury on Monday, made the decision after Judge Nancy Krueger ruled they could call no witnesses or submit additional evidence showing what the archdiocese knew and when about their molester, the now-defrocked Father John Patrick Feeney.
The Merryfields are the first sex-abuse victims to successfully sue the Catholic Church in Wisconsin since 1995, when the state Supreme Court barred negligent supervision lawsuits against religious entities under the First Amendment. It ruled in 2007 that such cases could move forward if they allege fraud.
“It’s tough. Most folks would be excited to win something like this. But it’s a no-win,” said Todd Merryfield of Port Washington, his voice breaking, as he spoke by telephone Wednesday from Appleton.
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