MILWAUKEE (WI)
Courthouse News Service
By LORRAINE BAILEY
CHICAGO (CN) – A Milwaukee victim of priest sex abuse who received $80,000 in mediation cannot seek additional compensation, the 7th Circuit ruled.
The Rev. Lawrence Murphy sexually abused the boy in question, identified only as John Doe, in 1974 while he attended St. John’s School for the Deaf.
Doe participated in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s voluntary mediation program in 2007, and received an $80,000 settlement on all his claims “arising from any sexual abuse of [Doe] by Murphy.”
As part of the settlement, Doe signed a confidentiality clause stating that he could not introduce admissions made during the mediation as evidence in a later proceeding.
But when the archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy four years later, Doe filed a claim in the proceeding based on the same sexual-abuse allegations and sought to introduce the evidence presented in mediation.
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