$8.1 Million in Damages for Clergy Sex Abuse

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Ramsey County jury has awarded more than $8 million to a man who says he was molested by a priest in northern Minnesota when he was a boy.

Fifty-two-year-old William Weis (weyes) alleged he was sexually abused by the Rev. James Fitzgerald at St. Catherine's parish in Squaw Lake in 1978. The lawsuit centered on whether the Diocese of Duluth was negligent in how it supervised Fitzgerald, who died in 2009.

The Associated Press normally does not identify possible victims of sex crimes, but his attorney says Weis agreed to the use of his name.

Minnesota Public Radio News (http://bit.ly/1Opgmh1 ) reports the jury found the diocese was 60 percent at fault. Fitzgerald's order, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, was found to be 40 percent at fault.

Attorneys for the diocese and the Oblates declined comment.