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	Judge Denies Diocese Attempts to Dismiss Suits By Todd Ruger Quad-City Times [Iowa] September 15, 2004 An Iowa 7th Judicial District judge again denied attempts by the Catholic Diocese of Davenport to dismiss two more of 16 civil lawsuits alleging decades-old sexual abuse by priests. . The diocese has argued that the plaintiffs — Don Green of DeWitt and a man identified only as John Doe IA — failed to file the suits before a statute of limitations expired. . Diocese attorney Robert McMonagle said the diocese has asked the Iowa Supreme Court to review Judge C.H. Pelton’s ruling on those lawsuits. . That request will join an existing request for the state’s highest court to review a parallel ruling by Pelton in July on two other lawsuits, James Wells and a man identified only as John Doe III, McMonagle said. . In written rulings on the diocese motions to dismiss the four lawsuits, Pelton said a jury should decide whether the plaintiffs qualify for possible exemptions in the statute that bars old cases from being filed. . "It’s pretty much the same issues with the same arguments," McMonagle said. . The supreme court notified him that it began considering their request to review Pelton’s decisions last week, he added. . The lawsuits allege sexual abuse by priests dating back more than 30 years ago. . Green is accusing the Rev. James Janssen of fondling him when he was a minor in 1982 while he and his family attended Sts. Philip & James Parish in Grand Mound. . The other plaintiff in the latest ruling, known only in court records as John Doe IA, accused Janssen of beginning the repeated abuse in 1967, when assigned to St. Joseph Parish in Sugar Creek. The plaintiff was younger than 14 at the time. . A district judge in Lee County, Iowa, denied a similar attempt by the diocese to dismiss a sexual abuse lawsuit filed there against Vicar General Monsignor Drake Shafer. That judge said statute-of-limitations issues would be best decided by a jury, but the diocese did not ask the supreme court to review that decision. . In the latest ruling, filed Sept. 2, Pelton also denied a request by plaintiffs’ attorney Craig Levien to see documents sent from the diocese to the Papal Nuncio in Washington, D.C., requesting the defrocking of five priests. . The laicization, or removal, of a priest is an internal function of the church and requiring the diocese to turn over those documents could violate the First Amendment rights of the church, he said in the ruling. . McMonagle said Levien either has the relevant information in the requested documents either or will have after it after documents are reviewed by the court. . Pelton still has other pretrial motions from both sides to rule on before any trials, which are scheduled about one per month beginning Nov. 1. . For instance, the diocese has asked Pelton to compel Levien to reveal the amount of damages sought by the plaintiffs.
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