Trial begins Monday in St. Louis priest sexual abuse case

Fox 2
July 6, 2014

http://fox2now.com/2014/07/06/trial-begins-monday-in-st-louis-priest-sexual-abuse-case/

ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI)- Trial is set to begin Monday in the civil case against a former Archdiocese of St. Louis priest accused of sexual abuse. According to the suit, Father Joseph Ross is accused of sexually molesting a female parishioner in the late 1990s and early 2000s when she was just five to six years old. Ross was assigned to St. Cronan Church in the city of St. Louis. The suit names both the priest and the archdiocese.

The Ross case is scheduled to go to trial July 7 at the Carnahan Courthouse in downtown St. Louis.

Barbara Dorris, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in a statement, “We are grateful to the brave and persistent victim in this case. Her courage will inspire others to get help and expose Catholic officials who commit and conceal heinous crimes against children.”

According to our partners at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Ross case is only the second child sexual abuse case against the archdiocese to make it to trial.

In 1988, Ross pleaded guilty to sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy at Christ the King parish in University City. He was sent away for treatment, and then later assigned to St. Cronan’s. Ross was later defrocked by the Vatican.