LITTLE ROCK (AR)
Arkansas Democrat
June 28, 2019
By Youssef Rddad
The Catholic Diocese of Little Rock confirmed Thursday night that it paid nearly $800,000 to five men who say an Arkansas priest sexually abused them when the men were boys in the early 1970s.
North Little Rock attorney Josh Gillispie filed a legal claim on behalf of the men that said the Rev. John J. McDaniel sexually abused them while the men were students at Our Lady of the Holy Souls Catholic Church in Little Rock.
Dennis Lee, a spokesman for the Diocese of Little Rock, confirmed the diocese agreed to pay $790,000 to settle the case after reaching an agreement with the men through a third-party mediator last month.
The settlement is the first publicly acknowledged payment by the Diocese of Little Rock since the diocese released a list of clergy who worked in Arkansas at some point and had credible or substantiated claims of sexual abuse against them.
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