APPLETON (WI)
Green Bay Press-Gazette
Sex abuse civil suit against Green Bay diocese heads to trial
Written by
Jim Collar
Gannett Wisconsin Media
APPLETON — A former Fox Valley priest spent nearly eight years in prison for the 1978 sexual assaults of two young parishioners, but his victims say justice hasn’t been fully served.
A civil lawsuit that slowly built in Outagamie County’s court system for more than four years heads to trial on Monday as brothers Todd and Troy Merryfield, formerly of Freedom, seek unspecified damages from the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay based on their childhood assaults.
Over the course of the next two weeks, a jury will determine whether the diocese is civilly responsible based on allegations it knew about sexual abuse committed by John Feeney before 1978 and fraudulently failed to inform Freedom’s St. Nicholas Catholic Church of the dangers he posed to children. The diocese denies the allegations.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday morning.
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