BOSTON (AP) - No settlement is in sight between the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston and alleged victims of clergy sex abuse, an attorney for the plaintiffs said.
Both sides had agreed to a cooling-off period of more than 30 days — without court motions and without news conferences — to discuss a settlement of 240 pending cases. But it ended without resolution, said attorney Roderick MacLeish, who represents the alleged victims.
"We no longer feel as though we have a basis to settle these 240 cases and are going to proceed with litigation," he said.
The Rev. Christopher Coyne, an archdiocese spokesman, said it was willing to keep negotiating.
"We have not broken off discussion and the archdiocese is still prepared to meet and work toward a resolution, to bring about a settlement," Coyne said. "We're available, and we would be very disappointed if negotiations broke off."
Also Thursday, the Boston Archdiocese suspended the Rev. Victor LaVoie, pastor of St. Eulalia in Winchester, after church officials determined that an allegation of sexual misconduct more than 20 years ago warranted investigation.
A message left for LaVoie at St. Eulalia's was not returned Thursday evening.
Also Thursday:
_Supporters of a defrocked priest who pleaded guilty last year to molesting four altar boys urged the Kansas Parole Board to release him from prison.
Robert Larson, 72, is seeking to be released from the state prison at Lansing in late September, 18 months into his sentence of three to 10 years. Several of Larson's victims and their families pleaded that he remain jailed.
_Eight more men sued the Archdiocese of Seattle and the Rev. James McGreal, alleging that the priest molested them at parishes in Olympia and Seattle in the 1960s and 1970s. In all, 15 men have accused McGreal in three lawsuits filed against the archdiocese.
Bill Gallant, spokesman for the archdiocese, declined to comment.
_Three sisters said in a lawsuit against the Miami Roman Catholic church and the Archdiocese of Miami that an elderly employee assaulted them on church grounds and church leaders refused to help them.
The women, who were not named, said they were molested in 1989 when they were 8, 9, and 10 years old by a carpenter at the Church of Saint Agatha.
Archdiocese spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta declined to comment.