Belleville, IL (KMOX)–After a nearly decade long legal battle, the Belleville Diocese has now agreed to pay more than six million dollars to a former altar boy who was abused in the seventies.   James Wisniewski of Champaign filed a clergy abuse suit in 2002 and finally won his case in 2008.   A jury awarded him five million dollars at that time, but the Belleville Diocese — led by Bishop Edward Braxton — appealed and lost at both the Appellate and State Supreme Court levels earlier this year.   Now, with interest accumulating at more than twelve hundred dollars a day, the Diocese says it will pay Wisniewski what has grown to 6.3 million dollars.  The payout should come next Wednesday in St. Clair County Circuit Court.

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