Court clears way for priest lawsuit

[NashVegas]

In a precedent-setting decision, the Tennessee Supreme Court has cleared the way for a $68 million child sexual abuse lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville to move forward.

.......

The Diocese finally relieved McKeown of his duties in 1989 (after having been reported as a molester, found to be untreatable. Final straw was he gave a kid a condom). The Diocese assisted him financially until 1994 - a total of $50,000. The plaintiffs termed the amount as "hush money."

The plaintiffs met McKeown in the trailer park they lived in. He befriended them and their mothers, and in 1994 started molesting John Doe 2 and the following year John Doe 1.

Even though McKeown was at that time not affiliated with the Church, the Does fault the Diocese for not properly investigating and reporting McKeown to the authorities so that he would have been prosecuted and imprisoned.

more -

http://nashvillecitypaper.com/index.cfm?section=9&screen=news&news_id=38636


I have every sympathy in the world for this family. I was one of those kids, once upon a time. But I think this goes too far, and here's why:

The diocese could have reported him, easily. But they were not witness to events, and had McKeown chosen to get a good lawyer and plead 'not guilty,' and no one who'd been abused by him was ready to step forward and testify, there would have been no case.

When he was reported in 1986, it was over a 13-15 year old crime. Tennessee only gives victims one year's time to file a lawsuit between an incident and the suit. I think that has an effect; certainly it kept McKeown and the diocese from receiving any negative publicity. That's a law that needs changing.

$68 million is nice, but it's not going to bring peace. Just ask the guy who jumped in the Charles River.