NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal
By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, May 12th, 2016
SANTA FE, N.M. — Two unidentified men and a woman have filed lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe alleging they were sexually abused as children by priests working in New Mexico parishes.
Three priests identified as alleged abusers include Jason Sigler, who served nine years in a Michigan prison after pleading guilty in 2003 to molesting two boys.
Other priests identified in the filings as abusers are Earl Bierman, who died in a Kentucky prison in 2005 while serving a 20-year term for child sexual abuse, and George Reiffer, a former Las Vegas monsignor.
The suits were filed in recent days by Albuquerque attorney Brad Hall in 2nd Judicial District Court in Albuquerque.
A man identified as John Doe 49 filed a suit last week against the archdiocese and St. Anthony’s Parish in Fort Sumner alleging Sigler sexually abused him about 1974. The plaintiff at the time was a 10- or 11-year-old altar boy.
The Diocese of Lansing, Mich., sent Sigler in 1970 to a treatment facility for priests in Jemez Springs operated by the Servants of the Paraclete. The diocese later informed the Archdiocese of Santa Fe in writing that Sigler had been accused of molesting boys in Michigan, the suit said.
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