Appeals court dismisses abuse lawsuit against former Florida bishop

Published: 2004-08-27

ST. LOUIS (CNS) -- The Missouri Court of Appeals Aug. 24 dismissed a sexual abuse lawsuit against the Jefferson City Diocese and former Florida Bishop Anthony J. O'Connell, saying the statute of limitations ran out before the suit was filed. The three-judge appellate panel upheld a lower court ruling that when the suit was filed in 2002 it was too late under the statute of limitations. On the suit's allegations against Jefferson City and other dioceses, which sought to apply provisions of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act to the case, the court said the four-year time clock on RICO-based civil claims had also run its course. The plaintiff, a 51-year-old man from Massachusetts identified only as John T. Doe, claimed the abuse began in the late 1960s when he was 15 and continued until 1993. He said he confronted the bishop about it in 1994. Bishop O'Connell, who was a priest and high school seminary rector in Missouri before he became a bishop in 1988, abruptly resigned as bishop of Palm Beach, Fla., March 8, 2002, acknowledging sexual misconduct years earlier with a seminarian in his charge.

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