WISCONSIN
Minnesota Public Radio
July 19, 2012
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — A judge on Wednesday ordered a new trial for the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay in a civil fraud lawsuit brought by two childhood victims of clergy abuse.
In an 11-page decision, Outagamie County Judge Nancy Krueger threw out a $700,000 verdict a jury awarded to two brothers, now adults, in May. Krueger outlined information a jury should have expressed to the court before the fraud trial, WLUK-TV reported.
An attorney for the diocese had argued a retrial is necessary because jurors who made the award had expressed concerns about possible bias by one of the jury members.
“Whether these thoughts were just suspicions or a verified fact, they would affect her impartiality,” the judge wrote.
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