LOUISVILLE (KY)
The Courier-Journal
By JASON RILEY
jriley@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
For the second time this month, a judge has dismissed one of the few sexual-abuse lawsuits that remain against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville because it was filed too late.
Nine sexual abuse lawsuits are pending. All but one were filed since April, when, the church argues, the opportunity for further lawsuits had expired.
Jefferson Circuit Judge Stephen Ryan has agreed so far.
In his most recent ruling, Ryan said a lawsuit filed by Linda Epperson in June — more than 40 years after the Rev. Joseph Rives allegedly abused her — was barred under Kentucky’s statute of limitations.
The lawsuit, Ryan ruled, would have had to have been filed by April, a year after the first of more than 200 such lawsuits was filed against the archdiocese. Epperson could have been aware of her right to sue because of the widespread publicity surrounding the initial 2002 filings charging that church leaders knew of abuse and covered it up, Ryan said in his ruling last week.
