ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Public Radio
[with copy of the lawsuit]
By RACHEL LIPPMANN
It’s been more than a decade since the sexual abuse scandal roiling the Catholic Church became public. From the very beginning, the church hierarchy has faced one main criticism – that it was more committed to protecting abusive priests than protecting potential victims. That complaint was bolstered by revelations that church officials ignored credible accusations against priests, shuffling them from parish to parish, all the while failing to tell parishioners about accusations and even convictions.
Monday, in circuit court in downtown St. Louis, jury selection gets underway in Doe vs. Ross – a civil case that accuses the St. Louis Archdiocese of exactly that kind of negligence.
This is not the first time the Archdiocese of St. Louis has faced these allegations. Rebecca Randles, an attorney who has handled priest sexual assault cases throughout Missouri, said at least 80 cases have either been settled or otherwise disposed of in St. Louis. This rundown is meant to outline this particular case – Doe vs. Ross – which Randles said is only the second case in Missouri to go to trial.
WHO ARE THE PARTIES INVOLVED?
Joseph Ross – A defrocked priest now living in Little Rock, Ark., according to court records.
The Archdiocese of St. Louis – The non-profit corporation that serves as the seat of the Catholic Church in St. Louis.
Archbishop Robert Carlson – The man in charge of the day-to-day operations of the non-profit corporation known as the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Carlson was dismissed as a party to the suit in April 2014.
Jane Doe 92 – The pseudonym for a young Catholic woman who claims that Joseph Ross repeatedly raped and sodomized her between 1997 and 2001 while he was a priest at St. Cronan in the Botanical Heights neighborhood. Doe was 19 when she filed this suit in 2011.
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