A defamation lawsuit against a Tennessee bishop is growing in strength, with the bishop admitting that he accused an alleged rape victim of being the “predator.”
John Doe filed an amended complaint on March 27 accusing Knoxville’s Bp. Richard Stika of, among other things, falsely telling priests that Doe was the perpetrator in a sexual assault. Doe is accusing Stika of protecting the man who reportedly raped him: ex-seminarian Wojcek Sobczuk.
Number 159 of Doe’s amended complaint reads in part:
Stika has orally represented to others, falsely, that Plaintiff, not Sobczuk, was the perpetrator, or that no rape occurred, including but not limited to the following:
a. Stika falsely stated at a General Priest Meeting at Cathedral Hall in Knoxville, Tennessee on May 25, 2021 that Plaintiff was a predator who had victimized Sobczuk. …
b. Stika falsely stated at an annual priest convocation held in Gatlinburg, Tennessee on June 8, 2021 that Plaintiff had groomed Sobczuk.
Continue reading at Church Militant