Plaintiff drops Knoxville seminarian assault lawsuit, cites health issues

A lawsuit accusing a former Knoxville seminarian of sexual assault – and the former Knoxville bishop of covering it up – has been dropped by the plaintiff, with his lawyer citing poor health as the reason for the decision.

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“He was not able to continue the litigation because of some serious health concerns,” attorney Patrick Thonson told Knox News Friday on behalf of his client. “Obviously, conducting a case of this type is stressful and retraumatizing.”

The lawsuit argued that the Diocese of Knoxville, Tennessee and Bishop Rick Stika had mishandled allegations that a seminarian had raped a parish organist in the diocese.

The suit was initially filed in 2022, and then refiled in early 2023, after the diocese argued successfully in court that the former parish organist should not be permitted to file the lawsuit anonymously.

The suit drew largely from Stika’s admissions to The Pillar regarding his handling of the allegations against former seminarian Wojciech Sobczuk.

In May 2021, Stika admitted to The Pillar that he had removed George Prosser, a retired TVA investigator appointed by the diocesan review board to probe the allegation that Sobczuk had sexually assaulted a parish organist in the diocese.

Stika removed Prosser because, the bishop said, the investigator “was asking all these questions” during the course of his duties.

Stika insisted that he “knew in [his] heart” that Sobczuk was innocent, and appointed an investigator who interviewed only Sobczuk before filing a report on the subject, despite the fact that Sobczuk had also been accused of a second instance of assault, allegedly against a fellow seminarian, leading to his earlier dismissal from academic formation at St. Meinrad Seminary.

The Pillar’s reporting also found records showing that Stika had given Sobczuk thousands in diocesan funds while he was a seminarian, allocating a monthly stipend exceeding that of other seminarians, and providing for trips, laptops, and car repairs for Sobczuk.

The suit also included records showing that Stika had given the organist a significant gift soon after the alleged assault, and taken Sobczuk and the organist out to dinner together.

Stika admitted in legal filings that he had told priests of the diocese on multiple occasions that the parish organist was the aggressor in a sexual encounter with Sobczuk, despite the organist’s rape allegations.

Stika admitted a close relationship with Sobczuk, who periodically lived in Stika’s house during his tenure as a diocesan seminarian.

In November 2022, the Vatican dispatched two Virginia bishops to conduct an official apostolic visitation in the diocese, focusing on Stika’s leadership. In addition to the Sobczuk cover-up lawsuit, Stika faced an unrelated lawsuit alleging that the bishop did not act to discipline or remove a priest for nearly two years after the priest was accused of sexually assaulting a grieving parishioner.

He also faced criticism within the diocese for what sources described as financial mismanagement and threats of retribution against priests whom he believed to be making reports against him.

Stika denied the accusations against him.

But in June 2023, he announced his resignation as Bishop of Knoxville, a decade earlier than the normal retirement age for bishops. He cited health problems as the reason that he had requested to step down from leadership. However, The Pillar had reported weeks before that the Vatican was planning to request his resignation.

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