Lawyers for alleged clergy sex-abuse victims in Milwaukee plan to depose New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan and several Catholic bishops in an ongoing lawsuit about missing church funds.
Attorney Jeffrey Anderson has accused the Archdiocese of Milwaukee of shuffling $75 million from its books over the last six years to avoid paying up on sex-abuse settlements.
Dolan was Archbishop of Milwaukee from 2002 to 2009, when allegations of sexual abuse against the church exploded following testimony from victims before the Wisconsin State Senate and Assembly Judiciary Committee. During his tenure, the church got hit with 23 sex-abuse lawsuits.
The Milwaukee Diocese declared bankruptcy this January, and at a bankruptcy hearing Friday its chief financial officer said he couldn’t account for the $75 million Anderson says has gone missing.
Archbishop Dolan will be one of several past and current bishops deposed, Anderson said. A church spokeswoman denied that financial assets had been moved to shield them from victims.
“To the contrary, the archdiocese has been liquidating all nonessential assets for years to help pay for the costs of therapy and voluntary settlements,” spokeswoman Julie Wolf told the Journal Sentinel.
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