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  Sex-Abuse Suit Settled

The Oregonian
February 15, 1990

An out-of-court settlement has been reached in a Multnomah County Circuit Court civil lawsuit in which a parishioner of St.

John Fisher Parish claimed he was sexually abused by a former priest.

Terms of the settlement are confidential, said James D. Huegli, attorney for the plaintiff. The complaint, filed on behalf of a 25-year old Portland man in September, had asked for more than $2.5 million in general and punitive damages.

The plaintiff alleged that he had been abused over a 14-year period ending in 1988 by the Rev. John Goodrich, former pastor and administrator of the Southwest Portland parish. The complaint said the plaintiff was a former altar boy, student, parishioner and employee of the church between 1972 to 1988.

Goodrich retired in 1988 and later suffered a stroke that left him mentally incapacitated, according to Archbishop William J. Levada. The Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon also was a defendant in the suit.

The case was settled without the archdiocese filing a formal answer to the complaint. Levada said in a statement last fall that the church had internal policies aimed at trying to prevent sexual misconduct by its employees.

 
 

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