Lawsuit accuses priest of sexual abuse

ST. LOUIS -- A St. Louis man on Wednesday sued a Roman Catholic priest and the St. Louis Archdiocese, alleging he was sexually abused by the priest in the 1980s.

The suit, by a man listed only as John Doe 73, was filed in St. Louis Circuit Court and seeks unspecified damages. It accuses the Rev. Robert J. Yim of sodomy and other sexual abuse in 1986 and 1987 when the man was a grade school student at St. Paul Catholic Church in Fenton.

Yim resigned from active ministry in 1995 but continued to work in St. Louis as a hospital chaplain until last year. There was no listing for Yim in the St. Louis phone book and other efforts to find him using Internet searches failed to turn up a phone number or address.

Yim had not previously been sued or prosecuted in an abuse case, said Patrick Noaker, an attorney for the alleged victim.

Noaker and David Clohessy of St. Louis, director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, accused the archdiocese of putting other children at risk by transferring Yim to different parishes.

Archdiocese spokesman Jim Orso said he didn't know if the archdiocese had previously been told of allegations against Yim.

Yim was ordained in 1974. In addition to serving as associate pastor at St. Paul's parish in Fenton from 1985 to 1989, Yim also served as associate pastor at two other St. Louis County parishes, St. Clara's in Ballwin from 1975 to 1978, and St. Dominic Savio in Affton from 1982 to 1984. He was chaplain at Barnes Hospital from 1990 until he left the active ministry. He served in Latin America from 1979 to 1981.

A spokeswoman at what is now Barnes-Jewish Hospital said Yim continued working as a chaplain at the hospital until 2002, most recently affiliated with the United Church of Christ.

John Doe 73 was not present at a news conference announcing the lawsuit but said in a written statement, "I am filing this case as a healing process so that I can move on with my life after 16 years of emotional torment."

The suit alleges the sexual contact occurred in and around the St. Paul rectory as well as at other locations around the metropolitan area.

Noaker is part of the Reinhardt & Anderson law firm in Minneapolis, which has filed more than 1,000 lawsuits nationwide, including several in Missouri, over allegations of sexual abuse by priests.

On Tuesday in Jefferson City, another man announced a suit against two ex-Roman Catholic priests, saying the men molested him for most of his childhood.

The alleged victim, now 28, accused former priests Gary Pool and Kevin Clohessy of sexual abuse during different periods from 1979 until 1993. Neither ex-priest had faced previous criminal charges.

Kevin Clohessy is the brother of David Clohessy.