MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

Written by
David Unze

A Stearns County judge has taken under advisement a request by a St. John’s Abbey monk who wants to retroactively plead the Fifth Amendment to questions he already has answered in a deposition.

Attorneys for the Rev. Allen Tarlton asked Stearns County District Court Judge Vicki Landwehr to allow Tarlton to change numerous answers he gave in a deposition last year after Tarlton was sued by a Sauk Rapids man.

The lawsuit accuses Tarlton of abusing the man in 1977 when he was 14.

Tarlton answered about half of the questions from the man’s attorneys in a deposition while seeking Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination on numerous other questions. At a hearing Thursday in St. Cloud, Tarlton’s lawyers asked Landwehr for permission to change all of Tarlton’s answers to reflect him seeking Fifth Amendment protection.