MINNESOTA
Hutchinson Leader
Updated: 10:35 am, Thu Mar 31, 2016.
BY JEREMY JONES jones@hutchinsonleader.com
Nearly half of the 16 priests identified Tuesday by the New Ulm Diocese to have been credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor served in McLeod County. Six of them were in Winsted.
The names were jointly disclosed by the law firm of Jeff Anderson & and Associates and The Diocese of New Ulm.
Mike Finnegan of Jeff Anderson & Associates said Thursday the information was released as part of the litigation of two lawsuits filed against the diocese by Lori Stoltz and Kim Schmit. Schmit was sexually assaulted by her parish priest in Willmar in 1968.
“Those lawsuits and several others sought the release of these names and the documents of abuse,” Finnegan said. “After some court decisions we had a dialogue with the diocese and came to this. So it came out of litigation and ended up in a discussion.”
The named priests are: Michael Skoblik, Douglas Schleisman, Rudolph Henrich, Louis Heitzer, Charles Stark, Dennis Becker and Robert Clark. Of the seven, Becker and Clark are listed in released documents to be still alive.
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