The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno won a key legal battle in a Fresno County court which threw out a defamation suit filed by now-former Bakersfield Monsignor Craig Harrison.

The suit, which alleged that the Diocese’s top spokeswoman, Teresa Dominguez, defamed him by stating in an NPR interview that she visited the home of an alleged sexual assault victim and told the individual that she believed his claims of misconduct by Harrison against him.

In court filings, Harrison and his attorneys argued that the statements by Dominguez equated to the Diocese believing the allegations against him.

In a ruling siding with the Diocese, Fresno County Judge Kristi Culver Kapetan said that the court had to review Dominguez’s comments to the public radio station using a “totality of the circumstances” test, examining the language used to determine if it asserted her opinion – which would not be considered defamatory.

Kapetan found…