Judge approves settlement for sex abuse in Helena diocese
The Associated Press | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 10 years, 5 months AGO
HELENA (AP) — A federal bankruptcy judge on Tuesday approved a reorganization plan for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena that includes a $16.4 million settlement for hundreds of people who sued the diocese over clergy sex abuse from the 1940s to the 1970s.
The plan, approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Terry Myers in Missoula, includes another $4.45 million payment from the Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province to settle a lawsuit filed by 45 Native Americans who alleged abuse and sex abuse at the Ursuline Academy in St. Ignatius over the same time period.
The plan will now go to a vote of creditors, the 362 plaintiffs in two lawsuits against the Diocese, and the plaintiffs in the Ursuline lawsuit.
Neither side is allowed to comment while the vote is pending.
The settlement calls for the Diocese to post on its website the names of all known past and present perpetrators who are identified in sexual abuse claims or in the lawsuits. A disclosure statement filed Monday lists 22 people by their full names and another 20 whose first or last names aren’t known.
The Diocese will fund its share of the settlement with $14.5 million from insurers and at least $2 million in cash, according to documents in the reorganization plan.
MORE IMPORTED STORIES
Judge confirms settlement in sex-abuse claims against church
Daily Inter-Lake | Updated 10 years, 4 months ago
ARTICLES BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Latest: US helped family escape Afghanistan overland
WASHINGTON — The United States is confirming for the first time that it has helped a U.S. citizen and family members to escape Afghanistan through an overland route to a neighboring country.
The Latest: US helped family escape Afghanistan overland
WASHINGTON — The United States is confirming for the first time that it has helped a U.S. citizen and family members to escape Afghanistan through an overland route to a neighboring country.
The Latest: Top Republican says Taliban holding Americans
WASHINGTON — The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee says some Americans who have been trying to get out of Afghanistan since the U.S. military left are sitting in airplanes at an airport ready to leave but the Taliban are not letting them take off.