TERRE HAUTE —
A Vigo County trial looks likely in a lawsuit filed against the Archdiocese of Indianapolis by a Terre Haute man who claims that a sexual predator priest was knowingly allowed to interact with and molest children in the St. Patrick Church parish.
No trial date has been set in the civil suit.
Judge Michael Lewis in Vigo Superior Court 6 has denied a motion by the archdiocese requesting dismissal of the lawsuit, which was filed in June 2008 by plaintiff John Doe CD, who claims that he was abused by Father Harry Monroe.
The archdiocese had claimed that the statute of limitations for the accusations against Monroe had expired before John Doe CD filed the suit.
The suit claims that the archdiocese knew about Monroe’s history of sexual abuse and had him evaluated in 1976. That is before alleged abuses by Monroe against the victim, and other juvenile boys at St. Patrick’s, that are alleged to have occurred between July 1979 and April 1981.
“The archdiocese has hidden behind the statute of limitations for years,” said Patrick Noaker, the Minneapolis attorney handling the suit for John Doe CD. “Fortunately, the judge sees it for what it is.”
The judge recently heard testimony in the case from the alleged victim. Noaker said the man looks forward to the case going before a jury.
In his review of the case, Lewis wrote that, “What the Archdiocese knew about Fr. Monroe, when it knew and what it did with that information are all factual issues that must be decided by a jury, precluding summary judgment. This record is besieged with factual issues, and highly disputed inferences, that [do] not allow summary judgment on John Doe C.D.’s negligence claims.”
Monroe was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1974, serving five Indiana parishes until his priestly faculties were revoked in 1984 because of sexual misconduct allegations.
Noaker said he can prove the archdiocese knew Monroe was a sexual predator, but allowed him to be reassigned to other parishes, including St. Patrick’s in Terre Haute.
An after-hours telephone call to the attorney representing the archdiocese in the case was not returned on Friday.
Reporter Lisa Trigg can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or lisa.trigg@tribstar.com. Follow her on Twitter @TribStarLisa.
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