BURLINGTON, Vt. – A jury has awarded $8.7 million in damages to a former altar boy who sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington over sexual abuse he says he suffered at the hands of a priest.
The man, now a 40-year-old mechanical engineer in Lakewood, Colo., sued the Diocese over molestation he claims he suffered at the hands of parish priest Rev. Edward Paquette in the 1970s. His suit claimed negligent supervision by the Diocese, accusing church officials of hiring Paquette despite warnings about allegations of molestation of boys in previous assignments.
After about four hours of deliberations, the Chittenden County Superior Court jury on Tuesday returned a verdict calling for $950,000 in compensatory damages and $7.75 million in punitive damages.
The Associated Press does not identify victims of sexual assault without their consent.
The man testified that Paquette — now retired and living in Westfield, Mass. — routinely groped him and other altar boys at Christ the King Church in Burlington. He didn't file suit until 2005, and Paquette wasn't named as a defendant.
One of the man's attorneys, John Evers, told jurors in his closing arguments Monday that a multimillion dollar award was necessary to punish the Diocese for protecting priests instead of children.
Church lawyers contended that the Diocese's leaders at the time believed pedophilia could be cured with prayer and psychological treatment.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox