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Sunday, July 12, 2009

$4.4M Catholic abuse settlement

Rev. Ronald N. Michaud, a Catholic priest now residing in Florida, just cost the Catholic church $4.4 Million.

Justice Joseph Jabar signed the judgment in Kennebec County Superior Court against Michaud and in favor of Steven F. Boyden.

Boyden, in a civil lawsuit filed in 2007, said Michaud sexually abused him in January 1985 when Michaud was stationed at St. Hyacinth's Parish in Westbrook where Boyden's family were parishioners. According to the lawsuit, the abuse occurred after Michaud invited Boyden, who was then 15, to join him in northern Maine for a trip to Quebec Winter Carnival. It says Michaud supplied the youth with alcohol before he sexually assaulted him.

It’s not Michaud first dance. It may not be his last either.

Michaud, 62, was removed from the ministry in 1989 after he was accused of sexual abuse of a minor involving an incident in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore where Michaud had been ordained. Michaud, a native Mainer, had transferred to the Diocese of Portland in 1979.

They need to put this guy in jail.