A Pueblo district court judge said today that a sex-abuse lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Pueblo can go forward, denying the church’s claim that the lawsuit was filed too long after the fact.
The lawsuit involves former Catholic priest Andrew Burke, who committed suicide in September 2005 just as allegations about his sexual conduct with a 10-year-old altar boy at St. Pius X Catholic Church in Pueblo in the early 1970s were about to be made public.
The plaintiff, identified in court documents as John Doe No. 7, filed the lawsuit naming the diocese and the church as defendants.
Burke, 62 at the time of his death, left the priesthood in 1973. He reportedly cited a “psychosexual behavior disorder” in his letter to the Vatican.
He later was director of social work at the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo.
U.S. District Judge Victor I. Reyes also ruled that the diocese must provide Burke’s personnel file to attorneys for the alleged victims within 15 days.
In a statement, Cortez’s attorney, Adam Horowitz, said, “This is an important ruling for all victims of sexual abuse in Colorado. Victims who were sexually abused many years ago can still pursue their claims to hold all of those who hurt them accountable.”
Editor’s note, this story was corrected: Because of a reporting error, this brief incorrectly identified the plaintiff in a sex-abuse case filed against former Catholic priest Andrew Burke and the Catholic Diocese of Pueblo. The defendant, with court permission, is identified only as John Doe No. 7. Also, the suit was filed in Pueblo District Court.
