Jury awards $500,000 to boy groped by priest

A jury awarded $500,000 to a Las Vegas man who said the Green Bay, Wis., Catholic Diocese was negligent for sending a priest, who groped him at age 13, to Las Vegas.

The victim, identified in court documents as John Doe 119, also sued former priest John Patrick Feeney, the bishop of Las Vegas and the Catholic Diocese of Reno-Las Vegas. Those cases were dismissed.

After a monthlong trial before Judge Valorie Vega, the jury found the Green Bay Diocese did not commit fraud and did not award punitive damages.

The $500,000 judgement was for pain and suffering and future medical expenses. Lawyer Peter Mazzeo, who defended the diocese, said an appeal is planned.

The man said on two occasions in 1984, as a student at St. Francis de Sales parish, Feeney inappropriately touched him, once by placing his hand on the victim's knee during a car ride and the other time by placing his hand in the boy's shorts while talking about the Playboy TV channel.

The victim told adults what happened, but no one believed him. He said he lost faith in God and the Catholic Church and turned to drugs and alcohol.

The defense said the victim's family had a long history of drug and alcohol abuse . The defense added that after the incidents, he attended two Catholic schools, Bishop Gorman High School and Benedictine College, in Kansas, questioning how much the victim was affected.

The victim's lawyer could not be reached for comment.

Feeney was convicted in 2004 of sexually assaulting two brothers under 15 years old in Wisconsin decades earlier and was sentenced to prison. In 2005, he was defrocked by the Vatican.

Feeney was released on parole last year and registered as a sex offender.

Contact reporter Francis McCabe at fmccabe@review journal.com or 702-380-1039.