Oregon firm files abuse lawsuits against churches

Jason jsipe on February 11, 2009

2/11/2009
The Associated Press
www.OregonLife.com

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A Portland man has filed a $4 million lawsuit against the Franciscan Friars of California, alleging childhood sexual abuse by a priest.

The 62-year-old man was listed only by his initials in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

The Franciscan Friars are an order of the Roman Catholic Church. The complaint alleges the man was abused as a teenager by Father Claude Riffel at the St. Francis Minor Seminary in Troutdale in the early 1960s.

In an unrelated lawsuit seeking $3.25 million, a pastor for the Western Oregon Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and its Roseburg Junior Academy was accused of sexually abusing a 5-year-old girl in 1992.

The pastor was identified only by his initials.

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