Catholic church appeals $500,000 jury award

From staff and wire reports

Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2015 | 1:43 p.m.

Nevada Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments Tuesday on an appeal by Catholic church officials of a $500,000 jury award to a man who says he was molested as a 13-year-old by a priest who had moved from Wisconsin to Las Vegas.

A lawyer for the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay argued the case shouldn’t be in Nevada, that it should’ve been thrown out before trial, and that the diocese shouldn’t have been held responsible in 2012 for the priests’ actions in 1984.

The priest, John Feeney, was convicted in Wisconsin in 2004 of molesting two boys, defrocked and imprisoned. The Green Bay Diocese paid a $700,000 civil judgment in that case.

The Nevada case accused church officials of failing to notify officials in Nevada of Feeney’s past conduct.

The justices asked attorneys for both sides whether the Nevada District Court had jurisdiction over the Diocese of Green Bay and whether the man waited too long before filing a lawsuit, which was filed in 2008.

Las Vegas lawyer Peter Mazzeo told the court the Diocese of Green Bay had no control or supervision over Feeney and the judgment should not stand.

But attorney Michael Finnegan of St. Paul, Minn., argued that Feeney could have been recalled by the Diocese of Green Bay at any time and owed his obedience to it.

Feeney was ordained in Wisconsin in 1952 and served there until 1983. He left and relocated to Arizona, then to San Diego and finally to Las Vegas, where he had relatives.

In Las Vegas he was assigned to the St. Francis de Sales Parish.

Las Vegas Sun reporter Cy Ryan and the Associated Press contributed to this report.