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A Wisconsin court has ruled that Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, diagnosed with dementia, is incompetent to stand trial for sexual assault. This follows a similar decision in Massachusetts in August, where charges against the 93-year-old former Catholic Church official were dropped due to his unfitness for trial.

McCarrick, residing in Hyattsville, Maryland, faced charges of fourth-degree sexual assault in an incident dating back to April 1977. The accuser alleged that McCarrick abused him repeatedly over several years and in various states during his teenage years. The Wisconsin judge based his decision on an evaluation by the same Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine psychologist who advised the Massachusetts court.

Mitchell Garabedian, the attorney for the accuser in both the Massachusetts and Wisconsin cases, remains determined despite the ruling. “My client is a courageous and determined clergy sexual abuse survivor who will continue to seek validation and justice in the civil courts of NJ and NY,” Garabedian stated. McCarrick was stripped of his cardinalship and removed from the clergy in 2018 and 2019, respectively, following sexual abuse allegations. These allegations were first publicized by The New York Times in 2018, revealing that church officials had been aware of complaints against McCarrick since 1994.

Throughout his tenure as a high-ranking archbishop in Washington, D.C., McCarrick played significant roles in public events, including the funerals of prominent figures and advising the pope during the child sex abuse crisis in 2002.