MINNESOTA
Star Tribune
Article by: CHAO XIONG , Star Tribune Updated: September 10, 2014
The trial involving a priest, the Winona Diocese and St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese is to start Nov. 3.
A high-profile lawsuit alleging clergy sexual abuse of minors and a coverup by the Catholic Church will be tried in Ramsey County, the Minnesota Court of Appeals has ruled.
The appeals court rejected the Diocese of Winona’s request for a change of venue in the case of Doe 1 vs. Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Diocese of Winona and Thomas Adamson.
“We were definitely glad to get the news that this trial will move forward,” Mike Finnegan, an attorney for Doe 1, said Wednesday.
The trial is scheduled to start Nov. 3.
The diocese filed a motion in Ramsey County District Court in July to move the trial to Olmsted County, St. Louis County or Clay County. In doing so, the diocese said that “intense prejudicial” pretrial publicity and the “media frenzy” surrounding the case would make it impossible to have a fair trial in Ramsey County.
Ramsey County District Judge John Van de North had ruled Aug. 4 that the trial should stay in Ramsey County.
The suit, filed last year, alleges that former priest Thomas Adamson sexually abused Doe 1 in the 1970s.
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