TEXAS
Beaumont Enterprise
By Tim Monzingo
Published 8:37 am, Thursday, December 12, 2013
A civil suit against the Catholic Diocese of Beaumont alleging abuse by a priest against six boys in at least three parishes over three decades was settled Wednesday.
The suit, originally filed April 12, 2012, charged the diocese and Bishop Curtis J. Guillory, in his official capacity, with “negligent and grossly negligent” actions for keeping the Rev. Ronald Bollich on staff when it “knew or should have known he had a propensity to molest boys.”
Tahira Merritt, a Dallas-based attorney who represented the victims, said the settlement amount was not disclosed at the plaintiffs’ request.
“The last victim was abused 20 years after the first victims were abused,” she said by phone Wednesday. “The diocese knew (Father Bollich) was a sexual predator.”
Bollich was a priest for more than 30 years – from 1964 up until his death in April 1996. He worked parishes in Jefferson County, Orange County and Nacogdoches County, according to the final petition in the case, filed Nov. 15, 2013. His duties took him to churches in Beaumont, Bridge City, Port Arthur, Groves, Silsbee, Buna, Moral, Nacogdoches and Chireno, the petition reads.
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