BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) - A judge says jury deliberations will begin today in the Vermont case of a former altar boy suing the Diocese of Burlington in a sex case involving a former Indiana priest.

A 40-year-old Colorado man says the Reverend Edward Paquette
groped him in the 1970s and that the Diocese bears responsibility
because it knew of similar allegations against the priest in Indiana before he was hired in Vermont.

Paquette had been a priest in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South
Bend previously.

The eight-man, four-woman jury heard closing arguments Monday.

The plaintiff's attorney, John Evers, urged jurors to award him
millions of dollars in compensatory and punitive damages for the suffering that he had endured. He says the diocese protected priests at the expense of children.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)