MINNESOTA
southernminn.com
Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota man has settled a lawsuit with St. John’s Abbey that will force the release of personnel files for 19 monks accused of sexually abusing minors, attorneys said Monday.
The settlement announced by attorney Jeff Anderson’s law firm was to be detailed at a news conference Tuesday.
Anderson sued St. John’s in 2013 on behalf of Edward “Troy” Bramlage III, 52, who said he was abused by the Rev. Allen Tarlton when he was a 14-year-old freshman at its prep school in 1977. The lawsuit said St. John’s leadership repeatedly sent Tarlton for treatment but allowed him to continue working at the prep school.
Anderson said Monday the settlement is “a big deal” and an “important step forward” because it requires not only the disclosure of Tarlton’s files but also those of an additional 18 St. John’s monks credibly accused of abuse. A timeline for releasing the other files has yet to be set, Anderson said.
“Until we reveal the history (of abuse), it’s going to repeat,” Anderson said.
The abbey has said Tarlton lives in a restricted setting and has no contact with students. In a statement Monday, the abbey said it reached the settlement in order “to achieve some measure of reconciliation” but had no other comment. Tarlton’s attorney, Robert Stich of Minneapolis, said Monday that Tarlton, now 87 and under 24-hour-a-day medical care at the abbey, has never admitted abusing Bramlage.
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