Two brothers who were sexually assaulted by a priest 30 years ago filed a lawsuit today claiming fraud by the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay.Troy and Todd Merryfield allege in the lawsuit the diocese knew that John Feeney was a danger to children and that officials concealed that information from parishioners at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Freedom.
Feeney, who turned 80 on Tuesday, is serving a 15-year prison sentence at the Fox Lake Correctional Institution for the 1978 assaults of the Merryfield brothers, then 12 and 14 years old.
Feeney was convicted in Outagamie County in April 2004 and was stripped of his priestly duties by the church.
“(Troy and Todd Merryfield) have been through a lot and have suffered for a long time and they want to help others and lift some of the secrecy from the diocese of Green Bay,” said the Merryfields’ attorney, Jeff Anderson of St. Paul, Minn.
A special report in The Post-Crescent, published in May 2002, detailed how Feeney was moved 14 times in 14 years during his stint with the Green Bay diocese. In all, he served at 18 parishes in the diocese between his June 1952 ordination and before moving to California in 1983.
Anderson said the lawsuit takes advantage of a decision by the Wisconsin Supreme Court about a year ago that allows victims in similar cases to use fraud statutes to get around the statute of limitations. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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