Judge declines Worcester Diocese request to dismiss it from soup kitchen sexual coercion suit

WORCESTER - A Worcester Superior Court judge last week declined to dismiss the Worcester Diocese from a lawsuit that alleges the former program director of its city soup kitchen coerced a client into commercial sex.

In a brief, handwritten ruling June 29, Judge Valerie Yarashus denied the church’s motion to dismiss it from the case, but wrote that many of the claims “may be appropriate for resolution” prior to trial.

The ruling followed oral arguments May 5 in which the Diocese argued it should be dismissed from a lawsuit filed against William Riley, former director of its St. John’s Food for the Poor program, regarding allegations he abused his position to coerce the plaintiff, Nicole Bell, into commercial sex.

Bell - a former client of the pantry who until recently led a nonprofit advocating for prostituted women - alleged in 2022 that Riley coerced her and others into commercial sexual activity in exchange for program resources.

Her lawsuit alleges the diocese and its leaders knew or should have known about allegations regarding Riley for years, did nothing to probe them and, when confronted with them formally, commissioned a biased report aimed at mitigating liability.

Riley has denied the allegations in court documents. The church - which is not representing Riley - argued on May 5 that it should be dismissed from the case for multiple reasons, including arguing it was not brought within the statute of limitations.

Robert Pierce, a lawyer for the diocese, pushed back against a claim that its investigation of the allegations was biased by revealing that its investigator found it was “credible that Riley was improperly having sexual relations with not only the plaintiff (Bell) but others.”

The church, prior to the lawyer’s statement, had blacked out the conclusions of its report regarding Riley from a version of its probe it released to the public.

That document left unredacted conclusions that absolved church leaders, including St. John’s Rev. John Madden, of wrongdoing.

While the church’s initial motion to dismiss Madden, itself and other church leaders from the lawsuit was denied June 30, it could renew such an effort as part of a pre-trial motion called summary judgment.

Such motions are more substantive and typically involve information gleaned from depositions and other evidence exchanged between lawyers during the pre-trial process.

In her June 30 ruling, Yarashus noted that her denial came “using the standard the court must apply” when evaluating motions to dismiss - a standard that requires a judge to generally accept the allegations in a lawsuit as true.

Yarashus added that many of the claims in the motion “may be appropriate for resolution” under the separate, summary judgment process.

Diocese spokesman Ray Delisle said Sunday that the church, under policy, does not comment on active litigation.

The Telegram & Gazette sent an email to Bell’s lawyer Sunday offering comment.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Judge declines Worcester Diocese request to dismiss it form lawsuit