DENVER (CO)
Washington Times [Washington, D.C.]
January 19, 2023
By Mark A. Kellner
2021 Colorado law created ‘lookback window’ for victims to seek damages
A Colorado man who said he was raped and sexually assaulted more than 100 times by a Roman Catholic priest in Colorado between 1998 and 2003 sued the priest, the Archdiocese of Denver and a local parish.
Scott Verti, 38, says the church knew Timothy Evans, then a priest at St. Elizabeth Ann Seaton Church in Fort Collins, was a threat.
Evans was convicted in 2007 on sexual abuse charges and sentenced to 18 years in prison but was paroled in 2020. The Vatican removed him from the priesthood in 2013.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Denver County District Court, did not list requested damages, but it did ask for a jury trial.
Mr. Verti was able to file the lawsuit, his attorneys said, because of a 2021 Colorado law creating a “lookback window” during which victims can sue over past abuse despite expired statutes of limitations. He agreed to be named in court documents “in the hopes of encouraging other victims to come forward,” his lawyers said.