Man Sues Yakima Diocese over Sexual Abuse Claims

Yakima Herald
July 2, 2013

http://www.yakimaherald.com/valleylife/faith/latestfaith/1287590-8/man-sues-yakima-diocese-over-sexual-abuse-claims

SPOKANE, Wash.- A man who says he was abused as a child by a priest has filed a lawsuit against the Catholic dioceses of Yakima and Spokane.

The lawsuit filed in Spokane County Superior Court Tuesday contends that beginning in 1961, Father Joseph Sondergeld sexually abused the victim at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Roslyn, Washington.

The victim was 9 years old when the abuse began.

The lawsuit contends the Spokane Diocese knew Sondergeld’s past abuse of children and failed to report him to the authorities. The Spokane Diocese instead transferred Sondergeld to the Yakima Diocese.

The priest died in 1969.