An Athens County judge recently struck down a motion to dismiss a $1 million civil lawsuit filed in January by a Glouster woman following the reported sexual abuse that she experienced as a minor by a since-dismissed priest.
Steubenville Bishop Jeffrey Monforton is the sole defendant of the suit, which alleges that he ânegligently failed to investigate and protect⦠to interveneâ in regard to reports of acts of sexual exploitation by his employee, ex-priest Henry Christopher Foxhoven.
The motion to dismiss was filed by the defendant in March.
âThe Court is unpersuaded at this point that the plaintiffâs complaint is one that cannot possibly succeed,â Athens County Common Pleas Court Judge George P. McCarthy in May noted in his decision. âThis is not to say the complaint ultimately will prevail or that the defense has no forceful arguments. Rather, it is a conclusion that the case should not be dismissed at the initial pleading stage.â
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A former inmate of the State Correctional Institution at Smithfield in Huntingdon County has failed to convince the Pennsylvania Superior Court that he found newly-discovered, exculpatory evidence in his case, which involved the aggravated assault of corrections officers during a 2013 melee at the prison.
Huntingdon County Common Pleas Court Judge George N. Zanic sentenced Ronald Terell Stockton, now 33, to an additional 27 to 100 months behind bars after the inmate was found guilty of aggravated assault of the officers.
Stockton was originally sentenced to a prison term of 10 to 20 years for robberies that occurred in Philadelphia County.
His Huntingdon County sentence is to be served consecutive to the Philadelphia County sentence.