MINNESOTA
Star Tribune
Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: July 22, 2014
Charges of church negligence in the handling of sexually abusive priests will be heard by a jury this fall.
The clergy sex abuse lawsuit against the Twin Cities archdiocese will move to a jury trial, a Ramsey County district judge ruled Monday.
Attorneys for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona had asked the court for a summary judgment that would dismiss the case.
But Judge John Van de North said a jury trial would proceed, now set for Sept. 22.
“This case needs to be tried,” said Van de North. The alleged victim “deserves a day in court, at least on the negligence claims.”
The judge said he would take under advisement a separate claim that the church’s handling of sex abusers posed a public nuisance.
The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed last year on behalf of a man who claimed he was abused in the mid-1970s by the former Rev. Thomas Adamson. It contends that church officials here and in Winona put children and others at risk of abuse by failing to disclose information about Adamson and other abusive priests — and that the practice has continued to the present day.
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