APPLETON (WI)
Press-Gazette
Written by
Jessie Van Berkel
Post-Crescent staff writer
APPLETON — An Outagamie County jury found the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay responsible Monday for concealing the Rev. John Feeney’s history of child molestation.
Feeney was convicted in 2004 of child sexual assault of Troy and Todd Merryfield in 1978. Afther the criminal trial, the brothers said they learned the priest had a history of similar assaults in the 1960s and 1970s that the diocese knew about and hid from parishioners at St. Nicholas Church in Freedom, which the Merryfields attended.
The brothers filed a civil lawsuit against the diocese in 2008 and the case went to trial May 14. After the verdict was announced the men and their attorneys shook hands and hugged; on a courtroom bench behind them, the brothers’ parents hugged and their mother wept.
The jury awarded Troy Merryfield $475,000 and Todd $225,000 in damages.
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