By H. Wicai, KWMU
Edwardsville, Illinois – Five men have filed new lawsuits in Edwardsville today against a retired priest and the Illinois Roman Catholic diocese of Springfield.
Attorney Jeff Ezra says the five men are charging that Father Walter Weerts sexually abused them in the mid 1970s and early 1980s. Weerts is no longer a priest and was convicted of molesting three other boys in 1986.
Ezra says Weerts was released from prison in the early 1990s and that what happened next concerns his clients and shows a continued pattern of cover-up.
He got a job teaching horticulture at a community college in Palm Beach, Fl. There's an indication he got the job in part based on a very good letter of recommendation from the diocese, Ezra said.
Weerts reportedly owned an airplane and rental property in southern Illinois. That is where some of the alleged abuse is reported to have taken place. Weerts is now believed to live in Texas.