MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio
Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Mar 25, 2014
Ramsey County Judge John Van de North has selected a retired jurist to serve as special master in a contentious legal battle over the release of internal church documents on Catholic priests accused of child sexual abuse.
Retired Minnesota Court of Appeals Judge Robert Schumacher has accepted the appointment, Van de North said in a letter to attorneys.
Schumacher will preside over discovery disputes in a lawsuit filed against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona by a man who claims that the Rev. Thomas Adamson sexually abused him when he was a boy. The lawsuit has already led to the release of names of priests deemed credibly accused of child sexual abuse by church officials.
Van de North recommended the appointment because of lengthy and complicated disputes between lawyers about the church’s internal files.
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