Illinois bishop asks top court to reconsider abuse case; victim's lawyer decries stall tactics
June 15, 2011
Bishop Edward Braxton of Belleville, Illinois, has asked the state’s Supreme Court to reconsider a diocesan appeal of sex-abuse case—an appeal that the court has already declined.
The renewed appeal postpones the payment of a $5 million judgment awarded in 2008 to a sex-abuse victim. The victim’s lawyer said that the bishop’s decision to renew his appeal was “sad and pathetic.” The delay in paying the jury award is costing the diocese over $1,000 a day in interest charges.
“We are not doing this to ‘hide behind the law’ as some might suggest,” Bishop Braxton insisted. “We are doing this in the hope of a clarification of the law and a consistency in applying the law to the Catholic Church.”
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