HALES CORNERS, WI (WTAQ) - The South Dakota Supreme Court has refused to throw out a sex abuse lawsuit against a religious order from suburban Milwaukee.
The Priests of the Sacred Heart is based in Hales Corners.
Eight former students sued the group 2 years ago, saying they were molested as children while attending the Priests’ mission school for American Indians in South Dakota.
The religious group said it was not properly served with the lawsuit, and they tried to throw it out on that basis.
The State Supreme Court agreed that an improper party was summoned – but the students still managed to serve a director of the religious order during a 60 day extension that was granted.
Two individuals are also named as defendants in the suit – Fathers William Pitcavage and Thomas Lind.
Pitcavage was a deacon at a Catholic church in Menomonee Falls for 2 years in the mid-1970’s. And he was a chaplain at a Milwaukee hospital in the early ‘80’s.
