The Diocese of Rockville Centre could be on the hook for nearly all of the $11.45 million that a Nassau County jury awarded to two people who were molested by a church youth minister beginning in 1999, lawyers and experts said.
That's because of one key word in the jury verdict, experts said. When the jury ruled that the diocese, St. Raphael's Church in East Meadow and its priest, the Rev. Thomas Haggerty, acted with "reckless" disregard for the safety of others by failing to protect children from their youth minister, it left the diocese vulnerable to footing the entire bill, experts said.
Reckless disregard...No news there...
"No monies will be taken from other diocesan sources," said diocese spokesman Sean Dolan.
. . .
"There's not a worry frown on my face," Dowd [Michael Dowd, a lawyer for the plaintiffs] said. "I don't think this suit is going to impoverish the Rockville Centre Diocese in any way."
Some maight claim that the diocese is already impoverished...
No comments:
Post a Comment