South Dakota Judge Asked to Decide Woman’s Church Sex Lawsuit

A South Dakota judge has been asked to decide a lawsuit filed by an Iowa woman against the Catholic Diocese of Rapid City who says a priest sexually assaulted her in 1987.

Pamela Baye and her husband, Sylvan Baye, of Iowa City, Iowa, filed the complaint in 2007 in federal court in South Dakota.

The diocese filed a motion for summary judgment and the attorneys are awaiting word on whether the judge will rule on it or schedule a hearing.

Baye says that during therapy in 2006 she recovered a memory of the assault by the Rev. Christopher Scadron when he was the family’s parish priest in Philip in 1987.

He died in 2002.

Baye says she sought counseling from Scadron to help her deal with a history of sexual abuse by her father.