APPLETON (WI)
Post-Crescent
[with video]
Written by
Jim Collar
Post-Crescent staff writer
APPLETON — Attorneys for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay are asking for a new trial in the Outagamie County civil lawsuit won by two childhood victims of clergy sex abuse based on new information they say shows a juror was biased.
A jury last month awarded brothers Todd and Troy Merryfield a total of $700,000 in the fraud case. The brothers claimed the diocese fraudulently misrepresented the safety of former priest John Feeney when it installed him as pastor at Freedom’s St. Nicholas Church in the 1970s.
Feeney molested the boys, then ages 12 and 14, in 1978. He was sentenced to prison for the sexual assaults in 2004.
Attorneys for the diocese filed a motion for a new trial last week citing a juror’s “incorrect responses” on a questionnaire provided in advance of the trial and “lack of candor” during and after the May 14 jury selection process.
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