CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant
By DAVE ALTIMARI, daltimar@courant.com
The Hartford Courant
2:27 p.m. EDT, September 13, 2012
A New London woman who says she was molested as a child by a now-deceased priest will receive $1.1 million as part of the settlement of her lawsuit with the Norwich Diocese.
The woman, referred to as Jane Doe in court documents, alleged she was abused by Father Thomas Shea in 1976 when he was pastor at St. Joseph’s Church in New London. She alleged that diocese officials, including former Bishop Daniel Patrick Reilly, knew Shea had a history of abuse allegations and moved him from parish to parish.
The settlement was reached Thursday just before the trial was set to start in Hartford Superior Court.
Reilly was in court Thursday morning preparing to testify as the first witness in what was supposed to be at least a two-week trial when word started filtering out of Judge Carl Schuman’s chambers that a settlement was afoot.
Superior Court Judge Robert Holzberg, on his last day as a judge before retiring, met with attorneys from both sides to iron out the last-minute deal.
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