NEW JERSEY
South Jersey Times
By Jason Laday/South Jersey Times
on July 19, 2013
CAMDEN — The Diocese of Camden is arguing that the statute of limitations bars a woman from seeking damages for alleged sexual abuses by a priest dating back to the early 1980s.
Lisa Shanahan, 44, filed suit in federal court against the diocese in May 2012 alleging a now-defrocked priest, Father Thomas Harkins, sexually abused her on 10 to 15 occasions between 1980 and 1981, while he served at St. Anthony of Padua in Hammonton.
U.S. District Court Judge Noel Hillman on June 27 rejected a motion to dismiss the complaint, ruling that since Harkins taught children’s catechism class at the church, the diocese in turn had a responsibility for the care of the students — Shanahan being one of them.
However, Cherry Hill attorney William DeSantis on behalf of the diocese filed a motion last week pointing to a series of phone calls Shanahan made in 2004 to diocesan offices.
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