Jury selection is underway in another civil suit filed by a former altar boy who claims Vermont's Roman Catholic Diocese failed to protect him from a pedophile priest.Last month, a jury found that the Vermont Catholic Diocese should pay damages for failing to protect a teenage parishioner from an abusive priest 30 years ago.
Now, another trial is about to start.
And the same priest is at the center of the accusations against the Diocese.
John Perrotte, 41, and his lawyers declined comment as they entered the courthouse. They were there to select a jury for Perrotte's lawsuit seeking financial damages from Vermont's Roman Catholic Diocese.
"In this case, two instances of inappropriate sexual contact between a priest in the Diocese and Mr. Perrotte when he was 14 years old in St. Anne's Parish in Milton. It happened in 1980," explained Perrotte's lawyer, John Evers.
Perrotte claims the sexual predator was former Vermont priest Alfred Willis. Last month, a civil trial jury determined that the Diocese did not protect another former teen parishioner from Father Willis three decades ago.
The award in that case was $15,000.
Perrotte will be seeking much higher damages.
He claims confidential Diocesan documents prove that former Bishop John Marshall-- who died 15 years ago-- knew Willis was a pedophile, but moved him from church to church without warning parishioners or parish priests.
The Diocese disagrees.
In response, it claims there is no evidence that the Diocese was negligent. Church lawyers also claim Perrotte waited too long to file his suit.
Jury selection is Perrotte's case could be complete by week's end.
The trial is scheduled for next month.
The Diocese is appealing the $15,000 award in last month's trial.
But it has already paid more than $1 million in damages to settle out-of-court with two other men who claimed they were sexually abused by former Vermont priests.
And there are at least two dozen more abuse lawsuits waiting for trial.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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