A ruling from the Maine Supreme Judicial Court opens the door to lawsuits against the Catholic diocese in cases where victims claim the church knew that a priest had a history of molestation. The ruling comes in the case of William Picher. Picher won a multi-million dollar judgment against Father Raymond Melville, stemming from allegations that the priest sexually abused him at St. Mary's School in Augusta in the 1980s.
He says the priest's supervisors knew that he had molested a child before he was ordained, but did not inform police or the public.
In a 5-2 ruling, the justices said that the Bishop is not entitled to use the "charitable immunity defense" for deliberate actions.
"The law court's decision," says plaintiff's attorney Keith Varner, "allows us to pursue the claim, to recover from the Diocese, for moving priests who they knew were pedophiles and moving them from parish to parish."
The attorney for the diocese, Gerald Petruccelli, says he respects the court's decision, however he believes the arguments of the dissenting judges are sound.
Petruccelli also says that there is no evidence that the Diocese had any information about Raymond Melville's past.
He says that St. Mary's was the priest's first assignment.
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