MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune
By Tom Olsen on Oct 17, 2015
The Diocese of Duluth is slated to go before a jury Monday to face child sexual abuse claims in a potential landmark case.
Barring a late settlement or other legal action, the lawsuit would become the first to go to trial under the Minnesota Child Victims Act, a 2013 law that opened a window for victims of decades-old abuse to file suit in cases that otherwise would be barred by statutes of limitation.
The trial, which could last up to two weeks, is set to begin Monday morning before Judge John Guthmann in Ramsey County District Court in St. Paul.
The Catholic diocese is facing negligence claims made by an unidentified man known in court papers only as Doe 30. The alleged victim filed suit in February 2014, claiming he was sexually abused by Father J. Vincent Fitzgerald in the 1970s.
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