What do you do when the perpetrator's dead?

From: Ray Marshall [raymarsh@mninter.net]
Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2006 7:33 AM
To: Rick Marshall
Subject: What do you do when the perpetrator's dead?

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You sue anyway, the jury will always decide in your favor, it seems.

This is the first case that I know of involving the Duluth diocese. Although the Superior diocese is having huge problems with the priest who apparently killed two in a funeral home in Hudson, WI. I know the guy who was the public defender for the priest (but he only met with him two or three times before the priest hung himself). The Defender thought the priest was innocent.

We've been pretty fortunate around here. There was a young priest who for a time in Duluth in the 70’s or so who was sent off for rehabilitation for an unnamed offense.

I see Merced got hit with a bad one a year or two ago.

This is a quite stomach wrenching experience for us bystanders to live through. I’ve followed it fairly closely for a time and there is no doubt that there were some real monsters out there. But there also were more than a few who might have had only one or two experiences/charges and 40 years later they get to be declared guilty.

And no doubt but that the Bishops deserve much of the blame. But they were depending on the lawyers and psychologists for advice. Nobody was trained for these kinds of situations.

All one can do is pray that it will end some day.

What's really shocking is the priests who can’t/won’t stop.

And of course, rather than pedophilia, since mostly it involves teenagers as victims, it is mostly homosexuality. But you can deny the holocaust before the media would accept that.

The lawyer Anderson referred to in the article has made millions, literally, over the years setting up a firm whose only practice is defending claimants against the Church.

One thing that I’ve talked about with others is the number of priests who hung around with kids, sometimes even taking them on outings, overnights, even.. Maybe I was naïve, but I don’t think I ever saw a kid ever even “chat” with a priest other than in a classroom. And the most they would say to us as Altar Boys would be “Good Morning” and “Thank You.”

Posted on Sat, Feb. 11, 2006

Trial set in case against diocese

BY MARK STODGHILL
NEWS TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

A September trial has been set for a former Proctor man who is suing the Diocese of Duluth and St. Rose Catholic Church in Proctor, claiming he was sexually abused by a priest starting more than four decades ago.

The plaintiff claims he was molested by the Rev. John Nicholson at the Proctor church starting in 1965 when he was an 11-year-old altar boy. According to the complaint, Nicholson died in 1988.

The suit claims that the alleged sexual abuse by Nicholson led the plaintiff to develop various coping mechanisms and symptoms of psychological distress, "including great shame, guilt, self-blame, depression, repression and disassociation."

The suit asks for more than $50,000 in damages.

The plaintiff, 52, is known in court documents as "John Doe 65." The former railroad employee lives in Arizona in the winter and Superior in the summer.

In his lawsuit, filed in 2003, the man claims that the alleged sexual abuse by Nicholson included fondling and masturbating the minor.

The Sept. 25 trial date was set during a teleconference Judge John T. Oswald held with the attorneys on Friday.

The plaintiff is represented by St. Paul lawyer Jeff Anderson, one of the most prominent lawyers in the country in handling sexual abuse cases by clergy.

The diocese is represented by Duluth attorney John Kelly.

Anderson said the plaintiff will argue that Nicholson abused the plaintiff while acting in the scope of his employment and that makes the Duluth Diocese legally responsible.

In his court-filed answer to the complaint, Kelly said that Nicholson was not acting within the scope of his duties as a Roman Catholic priest at any time he is alleged to have sexually abused or exploited the man.