‘A sad thing’: Diocese of Las Cruces responds to lawsuit

ALAMOGORDO (NM)
Alamogordo Daily News

May 19, 2020

By Nicole Maxwell

On March 31, a John Doe filed a lawsuit against two churches in Alamogordo, three dioceses including one in Massachusetts and the now defunct Servants of the Paraclete.

The lawsuit alleged the criminal sexual conduct made to Doe between 1972 and 1975 by the late Fr. David Holley was due to negligence on the part of the dioceses mentioned. They include the Diocese of El Paso, Diocese of Las Cruces, both in New Mexico and the Diocese of Worcester in Massachusetts.

“We are definitely aware of allegations that (Holley) is a credibly accused priest,” Diocese of Las Cruces spokesman Christopher Velasquez said. “It’s just a very sad thing and a very disheartening thing.”

The suit, filed in the 2nd Judicial District Court in Bernalillo County, also named Alamogordo’s Immaculate Conception Parish and St. Jude Parish.

Holley was convicted of child sexual penetration in New Mexico’s 12th District Court under Judge Robert M. Doughty, II in 1993.

Holley died in 2008.

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