Women sue diocese over alleged abuse

The Seattle Times/June 14, 2006

Two women filed lawsuits Tuesday accusing a Yakima priest, now deceased, of sexually abusing them when they were girls. The suits also accuse the Roman Catholic Diocese of Yakima of failing to protect parishioners from the priest.

The plaintiffs in Tuesday's lawsuits, filed in Yakima County Superior Court against the diocese, were identified only by their initials. In the suits, M.S. and F.C. say they were about 12 when the Rev. Michael J. Simpson, then serving at St. Aloysius Church in Toppenish, abused them.

M.S. is the sister of a woman who filed a separate suit last year also accusing Simpson of abuse.