BATON ROUGE - At least 29 new lawsuits have been filed in the 19th Judicial District Court since the original deadline for the "lookback window" passed for victims of sexual abuse by members of the Catholic Church.  

The deadline, originally set for June 2024, has now been pushed back to June 14, 2027.

In March of 2024, Supreme Court Justices ruled in a 4-3 decision that legislators had violated the state constitution when they removed the statute of limitations for sexual abuse claims and provided victims a temporary window to file lawsuits. In May 2024, the court stated that it would review the decision, and in June, it reversed itself.

Most of the newly filed lawsuits identify clergy members who appeared on the Diocese of Baton Rouge's list of credibly accused individuals, released in 2019. 

Included in these newest lawsuits filed since June of 2024 are:
John Joseph Berube, St. Theresa of Avila Catholic Church  (Deceased)
Carmelo Camenzuli, St. Joseph Catholic Church in Pierre Part (Deceased)
Rodrigue Hemond, Immaculate Conception Church in Scotlandville & St. Thomas More (Deceased)
Myles Kearney, St. John The Evangelist Catholic Church in Prairieville
in Gonzales (Priestly faculties removed in 2002)
Clyde Landry, St. Theresa Catholic Church in Gonzales & St. George Catholic Church in Baton Rouge (Deceased)
Daniel Lemoine, Immaculate Conception Church in Denham Springs (Priestly faculties removed in 1999)
Jesse R. Ortego, Holy Rosary Church in St. Amant (Left diocese in 1981)
Christopher Joseph Springer, St. Pius X Catholic Church in Baton Rouge & St. Gerard Majella Church in Baton
Rouge (Laicized in 1990)

The lawsuits also name 12 additional clergy members who were not on the original 2019 list.   In the court records, victims as young as five describe the abuse they suffered. The dates of abuse range from 1963 to  1993.

More than one-third of these new cases have already been settled privately, which allows both the diocese and the victim to avoid a jury trial. No details were provided in the court documents regarding the settlements.