MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio
Madeleine Baran May 18, 2015
A woman sued the Diocese of Duluth on Monday as part of an effort to force the Catholic diocese to release thousands of documents on priests accused of child sexual abuse.
In the lawsuit, Quin Buchtel said the Rev. Charles Gormly sexually abused her during his tenure at St. Francis of Assisi in Brainerd, Minn. Buchtel said the abuse took place from about 1960 to 1961, when she was 12 to 13 years old.
Gormly died in 1968.
“I’m coming forward on behalf of other victims,” Buchtel said at a news conference Monday.
“Hopefully by seeing me come forward and using my name, they will feel comfortable to do that, also.”
The lawsuit filed in St. Louis County accuses the Duluth diocese of creating a public nuisance by not warning the public about Gormly and other priests who had been accused of abusing children. It also accuses the diocese of negligence, arguing that the diocese “knew or should have known that Gormly was a danger to children” in the 1960s.
Buchtel is seeking more than $50,000 in damages and a court order that would require the diocese to release its files on priests accused of sexually abusing children.
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