PORT ANGELES – A $155,000 settlement has been finalized in Clallam County Superior Court in connection with an act of sexual abuse at a local church.
A 14-year-old boy put in charge of the nursery at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church during services on July 3, 2005, was convicted in April 2006 of the first-degree molestation of a 6-year-old girl.
He received a suspended sentence and is currently appealing the conviction.
Court documents in the civil settlement approved by Clallam County Juvenile Court Commissioner William Knebes this month do not specifically identify the case except by the initials of the victim and her birth date.
However, Clallam County Deputy Prosecutor Tracey Lassus, and public defender Suzanne Hayden, the two attorneys who tried the criminal case, said the civil action was in reference to the criminal case involving the boy in the church nursery.