MISSOURI
LMT Online
TROY, Mo. (AP) — St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson is accused in a lawsuit of mishandling the case of a priest once charged with molesting a teenager.
The lawsuit filed in 2013 alleges that Carlson knew the Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang was a danger to children before Jiang was charged with sexual misconduct involving the then-16-year-old girl in 2012. Jiang was added as a defendant in the lawsuit in 2015. Jury selection began Monday.
Archdiocese spokeswoman Elizabeth Westhoff said in an email Monday that the archdiocese “has steadfastly denied these allegations since they were first raised and intends to defend itself in court.”
According to the lawsuit, the girl told police that Jiang, then an associate pastor at the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica, had molested her at her home in Old Monroe, Missouri, about 40 miles northwest of St. Louis. The suit also alleged that a witness saw Jiang kissing the girl on the mouth and touching her inappropriately “in the parking lot of the church rectory.”
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