Diocese Loses On 1st Amendment Defense To Negligent Supervision Suit

AP reported last week that a state trial judge in Pulaski County, Arkansas has rejected a 1st Amendment defense by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Little Rock and has held that plaintiff Shannon Oates may sue the diocese for negligent supervision of a priest and failure of the diocese to protect her. Oates, who is 41, claims she was lured into a romantic and sexual relationship with Fr. Charles Kanu beginning in 2009 as he acted as her mentor in her conversion to Catholicism. The suit alleges that the diocese knew or should have known what Kanu was doing. Kanu is not named as a defendant in the case.