KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph has settled lawsuits brought by a former worker who claimed sexual harassment and a former contractor who claimed the diocese retaliated against her by making it impossible to do her job, attorneys for the plaintiffs and diocese said.
Attorneys for plaintiffs and the diocese declined to discuss details of the settlements, The Kansas City Star reported Monday.
The diocese denied the allegations after each lawsuit was filed.
In one, Margaret Mata, a former independent contractor, alleged that the diocese and Bishop Robert Finn retaliated against her for advocating on behalf of victims of the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, who pleaded guilty last month to federal charges of producing and attempting to produce child pornography. She also said she pushed the diocese to change its policies to prevent further child sexual abuse.
Mata said the diocese made it impossible for her to do her job by disabling her email, taking away her laptop and confiscating her business cards. She eventually resigned and then sued in October 2011, claiming retaliation, wrongful dismissal and invasion of privacy.
After the lawsuit was filed, the diocese said in a statement that it “categorically denies it ever prevented Mata from performing any work that was within the scope of her agreement as a contract worker.”
- Posted October 23, 2012
- Tweet This | Share on Facebook
Diocese settles two lawsuits
headlines Detroit
headlines National
- New Legalese: You may have heard a deepfake, but what about ‘Twiqbal’?
- From Intake to Outcome: An in-house lawyer’s guide to matter management solutions
- 2 BigLaw firms in merger talks that could produce 1,600-lawyer firm with top 50 revenue
- Send in the paralegals
- Lawyer reprimanded after mistakenly emailing opposing counsel with plan to avoid judge’s call
- ‘I don’t play well’ judge who threatened to track down, jail misbehaving litigant gets tossed from case