Depositions for Top Church Officials Scheduled

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Deposition dates have been set for top officials in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in a lawsuit filed by a former altar boy who says he was abused in the 1970s.

Archbishop John Nienstedt will be deposed March 19 and the Rev. Kevin McDonough, a former vicar general of the archdiocese, will testify March 20. A Ramsey County judge recently rejected the archdiocese's attempt to block the depositions of Nienstedt, McDonough and Father John Brown. The plaintiff's attorney, Jeff Anderson, said Thursday Brown's deposition has not been scheduled because the priest is ill.

The lawsuit against the archdiocese, the Diocese of Winona and former priest Thomas Adamson alleges sexual abuse by Adamson between 1976 and 1977 when he was assigned to a church in St. Paul Park.