Denver: Taking advantage of a recently passed law that permits victims to sue even if the statute of limitations has passed, a man who claims he was repeatedly sexually abused as a teenager by his Catholic priest more than two decades ago filed a lawsuit against the now-defrocked priest and the Archdiocese of Denver.
Timothy Evans, a priest found guilty in 2007 of abusing other teenagers in two counties in Colorado at roughly the same time, is the target of the lawsuit. While Evans was incarcerated, the Vatican laicized him, effectively removing him from the priesthood. He was granted parole in 2020 with the intention of living with relatives and working in Grand Junction, Colorado.
Scott Verti filed the lawsuit in state court and claimed there were about 100 instances of abuse committed against him while he was an altar boy at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Fort Collins between 1998 and 2003. Verti, then 38, ranged in age from 13 to 18 at the time.
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The filing is permitted by a Colorado law from 2021 that gave people a three-year window to file a lawsuit for childhood sexual abuse that occurred as far back as 1960. It's a part of a national initiative to make it simpler for victims to seek justice years down the road, after they've had time to process what happened.
The Denver archdiocese's Kelly Clark, a spokeswoman, claimed the organisation had not yet received or seen the lawsuit but added that it does not comment on proposed legislation. For a comment, Evans could not be reached.
A Philadelphia-based advocacy group called CHILD USA claims that over the past 20 years, about two dozen states have increased or completely eliminated their statute of limitations.
States like New York, California, and New Jersey allow sex abuse claims to be pursued regardless of how much time has passed, allowing claims to go back decades.
In Colorado, victims of childhood sexual abuse had to wait until they were 24 years old to file a lawsuit against the alleged perpetrators, and they had to do the same for the employers of those perpetrators by the time they turned 21.
Verti claimed that at the age of 24, he was not in a position to discuss what had happened to him, much less bring a legal action. He claimed that as a result of the abuse, he had become severely addicted. Evans allegedly warned Verti that if he reported the priest's behaviour, no one would believe him.
Verti claimed that as a result of the abuse, he was given a diagnosis of chronic insomnia at the age of 14 and was unable to maintain any kind of long-term relationships. He claimed that even after therapy, he wasn't able to comprehend what had happened until he was in his mid-30s. Then, after remaining silent and learning that Evans had been released from prison early, Verti declared he wanted to speak out for other victims.
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The now-engaged Verti said of his lawsuit, "It allows me to right this regret about not coming forward."
After three victims came forward beginning in 2003 to report abuse that had occurred years earlier, Evans was looked into by law enforcement. This was a year after the Boston Catholic Church Sexual Abuse Scandal broke.
In his lawsuit, Verti cites findings from a 2019 examination of the archdiocese's records that Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser had commissioned. Verti claims that the archdiocese was negligent because it was aware of Evans' risk even before he was ordained a priest in 1993. Evans was expelled early from the North American College in Rome, per Weiser's report, after fellow seminarians complained that he made them uncomfortable and one of them later disclosed Evans' sexual misconduct to the archdiocese's vicar of clergy.
When Evans was given the task of completing a "carefully supervised pastoral internship" in one of the archdiocese's churches, he was later charged with having improper boundaries and judgement in his interactions with young men. According to the review report, the supervising pastor informed the archbishop and the vicar of clergy about this, but nothing was done to look into it, and Evans was transferred to another parish.
Former Colorado U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer conducted the review as part of a deal arranged by the attorney general's office. The archdiocese consented to release its records and pay abuse victims however much a mediator deemed fair. However, recipients of those compensation had to give up their right to file a lawsuit.
Kurt Zaner, one of Verti's attorneys, claimed that around Thanksgiving, Verti submitted an application to use the church's reparations process. Verti, according to Zaner, decided to proceed with the lawsuit because after one meeting to discuss his case, officials have not responded.
Zaner said, "They haven't kicked us out of the programme, but they haven't accepted us either.
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The archdiocese said in a statement that because the proceedings are private, it is unable to comment on Verti's involvement. It stated that between 2019 and 2020, its reparations programme paid out over $6 million in damages in over 55 cases. After that, it claimed to have provided a protocol that employs impartial administrators to settle "certain claims."
The Denver Archdiocese stated that it "cares about all survivors of sexual abuse and is fully committed to protecting the most vulnerable members of our community, including children, youth, and at-risk adults."