A judge dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday against Mexico City Cardinal Norberto Rivera, who had been accused of conspiring with Roman Catholic officials in the United States to transfer a priest accused of sexual abuse between the two countries.Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elihu M. Berle found Rivera could not be held accountable in a U.S. court because the plaintiff didn't have enough evidence against him, said Mike Finnegan, the plaintiff's attorney.
"It was a legal technicality," he said.
"It didn't reach any of the merits of the case and it didn't get to the key issues in the case, which is Cardinal Rivera's complicity in sending Rivera to the United States as a child molester."
Michael Cypers, an attorney representing the cardinal in Los Angeles, didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
Plaintiff Joaquin Aguilar Mendez, 26, filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging that Rivera, who was then a bishop in Puebla state, knew that the priest had molested children when he sent him to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
The priest, Aguilar Rivera, is no relation to the cardinal or the plaintiff.
Rivera has said he was unaware of molestation allegations against the priest.
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