Maine Diocese Hit With Abuse Suits Under New Law

The Associated Press reports:

The first lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland since Maine took away a limitation on claims of child sexual abuse were filed on Thursday.

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills signed a law last year that allowed victims to bring civil lawsuits about older abuse cases. Abuse survivors previously could not bring lawsuits if they experienced the abuse prior to the late 1980s.

Attorneys who represent three people with claims of childhood sexual abuse by Catholic clergy and a lay educator filed the complaints seeking monetary damages.

The Portland Press-Herald reports:



In one of the new lawsuits, Robert Dupuis, who first shared his story in 2007, said he was abused on multiple occasions by priest John Curran in 1961, when Dupuis was a 12-year-old working part time at St. Joseph Church in Old Town in Penobscot County.

Curran was reassigned to a church in Augusta in 1962. Today, St. Joseph Church is called the Holy Family Catholic Church. Although Dupuis successfully petitioned the city of Augusta to remove the late priest’s name from a local bridge 15 years ago, he was unable to seek legal action until now.