Closing arguments are expected today in a priest sex abuse trial in Burlington.
And a judge says a jury may consider awarding punitive and compensatory damages to the plaintiff, a former altar boy who is suing the state’s Roman Catholic diocese over sexual abuse he says he suffered at the hands of a priest.
Judge Matthew Katz has said that evidence showed that Rev. Edward Paquette was a known child sexual abuser before he was hired by the Diocese and was not properly supervised.
A 40-year-old man from Lakewood, Colo., who served as an altar boy at Christ the King Church in Burlington in the 1970s, filed suit in 2005 alleging negligent supervision of Paquette by the Diocese.