Mediation extension granted in Holley clergy sex abuse case

On Oct. 6, New Mexico Second Judicial District Court Judge Daniel Ramczyk granted a mediation extension in the clergy sex abuse case involving an alleged victim of the late Fr. David Holley.

The alleged victim, identified as John Doe, filed suit against defendants Servants of the Paraclete, the Dioceses of Las Cruces, El Paso and Worcester, Massachusetts and Alamogordo parishes Immaculate Conception Parish and St. Jude Parish.

The parties in the case will have until mid-February 2022 to conduct mediation and until mid-April 2022 to conduct and complete pre-trial discovery, Ramczyk's order states.

All parties to the lawsuit filed for a time extension to find and meet with a mediator "due to difficulties in scheduling a complex mediation amongst all counsel and to complete the mediation currently scheduled for January 20, 2022," the motion states.

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On Feb. 17, 2021, the court ordered that the parties settle the case by mediation by Sept. 30.

The deadline was not met as scheduling problems and "locating an appropriate mediator for this matter and coordinating with schedules of not only mediators, but also the numerous parties and their counsel in this matter proved to be more difficult than the parties anticipated," the motion to extend deadline states.

The case is expected to go to trial in July 2022, according to court documents.

John Doe alleged sexual abuse by Holley in the 1970s when Holley was sent to Alamogordo following treatment for pedophilic tendencies at a Servants of the Paraclete facility in Albuquerque.

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On March 31, 2020, Doe filed the suit which alleged negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, vicarious liability, public nuisance and racketeering by the defendants in the case.

All defendants in the case have denied allegations and have asked for the case to be dismissed.

Holley was not assigned to either of the two Catholic parishes in Alamogordo. However, he and Fr. Wilfrid Diamond were accused of sexually abusing children. The two lived in a house across the street from a Catholic school in Alamogordo, court records state.

Holley was convicted of child sexual penetration in a 12th Judicial District Court in 1993 and died in 2008. Holley was sentenced to up to 275 years in prison in that case.

Diamond died in 1995.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, also known as SNAP, is the oldest and largest support group for those wounded by religious authority figures.

Anyone with any knowledge of sexual abuse incidents is advised to call their local police department and then the Diocese of Las Cruces Victim Coordinator Yvonne Bower at ybower@rcdlc.org or call 575-523-7577.

Nicole Maxwell can be contacted by email at nmaxwell@alamogordonews.com, by phone at 575-415-6605 or on Twitter at @nicmaxreporter.

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