CHICAGO (AP) - A lawsuit tied to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s bankruptcy will go before the federal appeals court in Chicago on Monday, with judges hearing arguments in a case that experts say could make millions of dollars held in trust available to victims of clergy sexual abuse and impact other cases involving gay marriage, health care and religion.
Attorneys representing clergy sexual abuse victims have asked the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate a lawsuit seeking to have about $55 million in a cemetery trust fund made available to compensate their clients.
The trust fund has been a focal point of the Milwaukee archdiocese’s increasingly bitter and contentious bankruptcy case. Sexual abuse victims believe New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan created the fund to hide money from them when he was archbishop of Milwaukee. Church leaders maintain creation of the trust was a mere formality because the money was donated to care for the archdiocese’s cemeteries and always used for that purpose.
Hundreds of sexual abuse victims have filed bankruptcy claims against the archdiocese, and without the trust money, it has relatively few assets. A proposed bankruptcy reorganization plan would provide about $4 million to compensate about 125 victims, but it would give nothing to many more.
The Milwaukee case is unusual among church bankruptcies because of the large number of victims, as well as its length and a lack of insurance coverage, which has made it more difficult to settle, said John Manly, a California attorney who has represented clergy sexual abuse victims in other cases.
The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in 2011, saying it would not have enough money if victims’ lawsuits went against it. Dolan wrote a letter to the Vatican in 2007, recommending a trust as a way to provide “an improved protection of these funds from any legal claim and liability.” The year before, the Milwaukee archdiocese had agreed to pay more than $16 million to settle with 10 California residents abused by two of its priests while they lived there.
Many other U.S. dioceses also have money in trust, but in most church bankruptcy cases, victims have been able to gain some access to that money, Manly said.
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STEVENS POINT, Wis. (AP) - Police say a small plane crashed at an air show in central Wisconsin, killing the 47-year-old pilot.
The crash happened about 12:20 p.m. Sunday at the Stevens Point Municipal Airport. Police say the plane was performing aerial maneuvers when it went down in a wooded area about 1,000 feet east of the airport runway.
The pilot’s name hasn’t been released.
Police ended the show and secured the scene. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board will conduct an investigation.
Melvin Burskey of Neenah was at the show. He tells Stevens Point Journal Media he couldn’t believe what he saw. He says there was a puff of smoke and then the plane went down.
The air show lineup was to include aerobatic performances and World War II aircraft displays.
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SHEBOYGAN, Wis. (AP) - The family of a Sheboygan teen struck and killed by a city truck in 2011 has indicated that it plans to sue the city for $250,000, accusing the driver and city of negligence.
The notice of claim is a precursor to a lawsuit, although no lawsuit has been filed yet. The next step is for the claim to be introduced to the city’s Common Council, which is scheduled to happen Monday, Sheboygan Press Media reported Sunday (https://shebpr.es/1jKTd3Ghttps://shebpr.es/1jKTd3G ).
The family alleges the city was negligent in the death of 18-year-old Jaime Olivas. He was crossing the street outside a crosswalk when he was struck by a Department of Public Works truck driven by a city employee.
The family said the city was negligent in mounting a leaf-collection system to the truck in a manner that obstructed the driver’s vision. It also says the driver, was worked for the city for 38 years and was 10 days from retirement, was negligent in failing to see the teen.
A call to the Sheboygan city attorney Sunday afternoon rang unanswered. The call disconnected without taking a message.
The Wisconsin State Patrol investigated the collision, concluding in 2012 that the leaf vacuum and Olivas’ decision to cross outside a crosswalk were both major factors in the accident.
The leaf systems were already slated to be replaced prior to the collision. Safety concerns prior to Olivas’ death prompted city officials to buy new leaf-vacuum systems that are towed behind trucks rather than mounted in front.
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MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Candidates lined up to become Wisconsin’s next secretary of state want the Legislature to return duties to the nearly powerless position.
A Republican candidate says state lawmakers should stop trying to eliminate the position and give back oversight of statewide elections. Democratic Secretary of State Doug La Follette, who’s up for re-election, says the state should give back most power, and a second Republican said he’d listen to voters before deciding what to do.
But in an era of cutting back state spending at any chance, sitting lawmakers say taxpayers aren’t getting their money’s worth - about $500,000 annually - for the office to have only one meaningful role. The GOP-controlled Legislature appears set to move forward with attempts to pass a constitutional amendment to end the position entirely, with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos on board and planning to also make changes to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Board, which oversees elections.
Forty-seven states still have a secretary of state, some of whom run statewide elections and licensing. But Wisconsin’s lawmakers have whittled the position into near obsolescence and promise to continue until there is nothing left to attack. Rep. Michael Schraa, R-Oshkosh, even proposed an amendment last session that would have eliminated the office and the treasurer position before the effort sputtered in the Senate.
Under La Follette, the secretary of state’s only marquee role is to serve on the three-member public lands board, which meets for less than an hour each month.
In the 1970s, Wisconsin put the State Elections Board in charge of statewide elections instead of the secretary of state’s office. Later, the task fell to the GAB.
GAB spokesman Reid Magney declined to comment on lawmakers’ calls to reform the board.
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