Archdiocese set to announce

MINNEAPOLIS — Victims of clergy sex abuse and church officials in the Twin Cities and Winona have reached a settlement in a landmark case that alleged church leaders created a public nuisance by failing to warn parishioners about an abusive priest, a person with knowledge of the case said today.

The person said the settlement resolves the public nuisance case against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the person wasn’t authorized to talk about the settlement ahead of an official announcement, planned for 1 p.m. today.

The archdiocese was not commenting before a scheduled news conference. A statement from victims’ attorneys said survivors of abuse and archdiocese officials would announce a plan to protect children.

Joel Hennessy, a spokesman for the Diocese of Winona, said the diocese would release an official statement later today regarding any potential settlement.

The case against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona is believed to be the first clergy sexual abuse case nationwide to use the public nuisance theory at trial.

That claim forced the unprecedented disclosure of tens of thousands of church documents and the names of dozens of accused priests. The flood of information — which included the public release of court-ordered depositions of Archbishop John Nienstedt and other church leaders — revealed how top officials handled allegations of misconduct by priests.

Lawyers for the church had asked that the case be dismissed, saying the public nuisance claim didn’t stand up in court, but Judge John Van de North allowed it to proceed.

The case was filed in May 2013 under a law that opened up a three-year window for victims of past sexual abuse to file claims that were otherwise barred under the statute of limitations.

The plaintiff, identified in court documents as Doe 1, claims he was abused by Thomas Adamson in 1976 and 1977, when the victim was an altar boy at St. Thomas Aquinas in St. Paul Park. In addition to the public nuisance claim, the complaint also alleged the archdiocese and diocese were negligent in allowing Adamson continued access to children, even though leaders knew he had behaved inappropriately with young boys.

The person with knowledge of the case told the AP that the settlement resolves both claims and avoids a trial, which was scheduled for November.

Adamson said in a deposition earlier this year that he molested around 12 teens between the 1960s to the mid-1980s. He was removed from active ministry in 1985 and defrocked in 2009. He was never criminally charged.

Adamson has an unlisted phone number and could not be immediately reached.