MINNESOTA
Star Tribune
Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: June 11, 2014
Former priest Thomas Adamson recalls 10 boys he has had sexually abused, out of list of 38 alleged victims, in court deposition
Thomas Adamson, a former priest in Winona and the Twin Cities, has testified in a court deposition that he sexually abused at least 10 boys as he moved from parish to parish in the 1960s through the 1980s.
Adamson testified that he met his first victims while coaching junior high and high school basketball teams at St. Adrian High School in Adrian, Minn., in the 1960s, according to a deposition made public Wednesday.
He said he later admitted the abuse to the bishop of Winona — but no action was taken to remove him from ministry or to warn parents and children.
Instead, Adamson was eventually transferred to the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis in 1975, where he allegedly abused a young man who is behind a 2013 lawsuit that has put a relentless spotlight on far broader sex abuse in the archdiocese.
During his deposition, Adamson calmly explained which boys he abused and in which parishes, sometimes adding details of sexual activity that happened in school gymnasiums, his car and his home.
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