Justice David Prosser: soft on pedophile priest

A few days ago, Jeff highlighted the fact Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser failed to protect children from a pedophile priest in 1979, when Prosser was serving as Outagamie County District Attorney.

The Greater Wisconsin Committee has a new TV ad out highlighting Prosser’s failure to act and protect children during his time as Outagamie County District Attorney.


While some would call the ad a “vicious smear;” the facts are the facts. As Outagamie County District Attorney, David Prosser told a mother he did not want to prosecute a Green Bay priest who had abused her sons because “it would be too hard on the boys.” In 2008, one of those victims, Troy Merryfield, said other children could have been spared abuse. “It wasn’t as if sexual abuse of a child wasn’t a felony back then,” he said. “The laws were on the books, and he (Prosser) should have prosecuted.” (AP 2/5/2008)

Speaking to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Merryfield reasserted his claim Prosser should have prosecuted father John Patrick Feeney, who went on to molest other children before finally being sent to prison in 2004:

“He (Prosser) knows damn well what happened and what was said,” said Troy Merryfield, one of the victims. “He dropped the ball” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2/6/2008)

Additionally, there was another victim who came forward in 1978 and told Prosser he had been abused by Feeney. While this victim did not want to testify, Prosser’s knowledge that there were at least three victims should have convinced him to launch a full scale investigation. As is clear by the police investigation in 2002, good police work very quickly tracked down numerous victims of Feeney. Unfortunately, Prosser did not involve the police and instead agreed with the Bishop to simply send Feeney to another community, where he went on to molest more children.

While I understand that Troy Merryfield is now saying he’s fine with how David Prosser handled his case back in 1979, as recently as 2008 Merryfield himself said that prosecuting father Feeney in 1979 could have spared other children from being abused at Feeney’s hand. “It wasn’t as if sexual abuse of a child wasn’t a felony back then,” he said. “The laws were on the books, and he should have prosecuted.”

One thing is for certain: if David Prosser had done his job back in 1979, there’d be fewer victims of father John Patrick Feeney.

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42 thoughts on “Justice David Prosser: soft on pedophile priest

  1. Choxy, Where is your “proof” that GOD actually wrote or said this? Just because some guy named Jeremiah wrote that 2000 years ago does not mean that GOD said it to him, or that is actually what GOD does. FYI the Catholic Church said life begins when the blood starts to flow. NOT at sperm meets egg. Besides – abortion is a legal procedure! And third trimester ones are RARE!

  2. FYI, GOD says the he knew you before you where in the womb!!!!! Therefore life begins at conception, and in case you do not know the meaning of conception, it is when the sperm penetrates the egg!!!!! So do me a favor, GET A LIFE!!!!!! How could you live with yourself, if you aborted a baby, and as far as that is concerned, Kloppenberg was asked in a interview what her stance is on late term abortion, and she stated: I feel that if a woman is pregnant, and six months into the pregnancy decides not to have the baby, she should be allowed to make that decision weather to abort it, or have it and adopt it out!!!

    1. Chox…besides the bible I suggest you read up a bit on procreation as well…and I also suggest that you shouldn’t be a one issue political voice if you want to be taken seriously…and you need documentation dude!

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