PORTLAND (AP) – Maine’s supreme court is being asked to overturn the concept of charitable immunity in a church abuse lawsuit.
A lawyer told the Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday that the Roman Catholic bishop knew the Rev. Raymond Melville had “pedophilic tendencies” when he was assigned to work at a parish in Augusta in 1986. While there, he’s accused of abusing William Picher.
As it stands, Maine law protects the bishop under the shield of charitable immunity. That doctrine was cited in a summary judgment against Picher late last year.
Gerald Petruccelli, lawyer for the diocese, says the charitable immunity doctrine was established 98 years ago and reaffirmed as recently as six years ago.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Related Stories
Latest Articles
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.