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Rudolph Kos was a Catholic priest in the Diocese of Dallas. He entered the priesthood when he was in his 30s after having his marriage annulled. His wife told the diocese that their marriage had not been consummated because of his relationships with teenage boys. When Kos attempted to enter the seminary, he was at first rejected due to instability.
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A new rector for the seminary allowed him admission in 1977. Prior to his graduation, another seminarian reported to the diocese that Kos had made advances to him, but Kos was ordained into the priesthood a month later. In 1986, when Kos was the associate pastor at a church in Irving, Texas, his pastor warned the officials of the diocese that boys were spending the night with Kos in the rectory. Kos received a warning about inappropriate behavior in 1992, but the diocese chose not to remove him. Kos later was sent to New Mexico for psychiatric treatment, and his parishioners were told he was being treated for stress.
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The civil trial against Rudolph Kos and the Diocese of Dallas began in 1997 and lasted for two months. The jury found the Catholic Church negligent because they knew of the sexual abuse and took no action. They further found that the Diocese of Dallas committed fraud and conspiracy in their attempt to hide the abuse from law enforcement, Kos’s parishioners, and the public. In July of 1997, the jury awarded $119.6 million to the men who had accused Kos of abuse. The jury also read a letter they wrote to the diocese encouraging them to change the way they dealt with accusations of child abuse.
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At the time, this was the largest verdict ever in a case of Catholic child sexual abuse.
The Diocese of Dallas believed that the jury’s award of $119.6 million would send it into bankruptcy, so they settled with the plaintiffs for $30.9 million in July 1998. At the time of the civil trial’s verdict, Kos was living under an alias in San Diego, California. Prosecutors used the testimony given in the civil trial to bring criminal charges against Kos, and he was convicted in 1998 of three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecency with a child. He was sentenced to the maximum of life in prison for each of the sexual assault charges.
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