Sexual Abuse Cases That Have Gone to Trial

Sexual Abuse Cases That Have Gone to Trial
Last Updated June 27, 2007

Thousands of civil suits have been filed in the United States relating to alleged sexual abuse by Catholic priests, but very few have gone to trial.

BishopAccountability.org has reviewed the evidence and documented 33 civil suits that have been tried since the mid-1980s.

Short statutes of limitations in many states and delaying tactics by dioceses have combined to severely limit the number of civil suits that could come to trial.

The small number of trials among eligible cases reflects the bishops' fear that juries might award significant compensatory or punitive damages, as in the landmark 1997 Kos trial, and even more, their abiding concern that information might become public in a trial, either by release of documents or through testimony by the bishop himself or his managers.

Whenever dioceses have filed for bankruptcy, upcoming civil trials have been a factor in the decision, and one case was settled after weeks of trial, shortly before a retired bishop was to take the stand (cf. the Freitas case).
Legal scholar Marci Hamilton suggests that a trial offers survivors a chance for vindication within their community and places the responsibility for the abuse "exactly where it belongs." This outcome is one that the bishops have avoided wherever possible.

The table below lists the trials in order by the date on which a verdict was rendered or the trial was otherwise concluded. Clicking the accused priest's name in the list below will bring you directly to the table entry on that trial.

Please let us know of other trials that should be included on this list, if possible with a link to a news story describing the verdict.