NEW YORK
Post-Star
DON LEHMAN — dlehman@poststar.com
A federal judge has declined to dismiss a federal lawsuit against a former local Catholic priest who was convicted of repeatedly molesting two young male parishioners.
A Queensbury resident who has alleged he was molested by the Rev. Gary Mercure is seeking unspecified damages for “sexual exploitation and abuse of children.”
Mercure, who is serving a prison sentence in Massachusetts for child molestation, could stand trial in U.S. District Court in Vermont as early as the spring.
U.S. District Judge William Sessions III recently refused to dismiss the lawsuit, which also names as a defendant the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.
The diocese is accused of “breach of fiduciary duty” for not properly supervising Mercure.
The plaintiff, whose name is being withheld because The Post-Star does not identify victims of sexual abuse, filed the lawsuit in August 2011. It was filed in Vermont because Mercure is accused of taking the victim there for the purpose of sexual abuse.
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