CALIFORNIA
Modesto Bee
By Sue Nowicki
snowicki@modbee.com
A third man claiming to be victim of the Rev. Michael Kelly filed a lawsuit Tuesday, saying that the Stockton Diocese priest sexually assaulted him more than a decade ago when he was a 10-year-old altar boy at a Catholic church in Calaveras County.
The lawsuit against Kelly, the diocese, Bishop Stephen Blaire and Monsignor Richard Ryan was filed in San Joaquin County on behalf of a 22-year-old man from Southern California. He said the abuse happened in the early 2000s at a Mokelumne Hill church, which the lawsuit identifies as a mission of St. Andrew’s parish. The church is listed as St. Thomas Aquina on the diocese’s Web site.
In April, a jury found Kelly liable of sexually abusing Travis Trotter, who said he had repressed memories of abuse that occurred when he was a Catholic school student in Stockton.
Kelly fled to Ireland on the eve of the second part of the trial to decide the diocese’s liability in the case; Trotter settled for $3.75 million.
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