Casper, Wyoming Clergy Sexual Abuse Lawsuit: Youth Minister, Diocese of Cheyenne Sued Over 1990s Assaults of Three Boys
If you are reading this page at 2 a.m. — if you or someone you love was sexually abused as a child by someone the church put in a position of trust — we need you to hear one thing before anything else: the fact that it took you decades to understand what happened does not make your case weaker. It makes it human. And Wyoming law specifically recognizes that.
We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. We build cases for people who were failed by the institutions that were supposed to protect them. This page is about a lawsuit filed in Wyoming alleging that a former Catholic youth minister sexually assaulted three boys in Casper in the 1990s while the Diocese of Cheyenne and Our Lady of Fatima Church failed to supervise him — even after his own supervisor was warned that he was plying adolescent males with alcohol. But this page is also for you, if your story sounds anything like theirs. Whether the abuse happened in Casper, in Cheyenne, in a parish across Wyoming, or in a church anywhere — the law that protects you is the same, and the clock on your rights may not be where you think it is.
Ralph Manginello has spent 27 years in courtrooms, including federal court, fighting for people whose lives were torn open by someone else’s choices. Lupe Peña sat on the other side of the table for years — inside a national insurance-defense firm, in the rooms where adjusters and their software decided how to deny, delay, and devalue people exactly like you. He now uses that knowledge for injured clients, and he conducts full consultations in Spanish without an interpreter. We are a contingency firm. We do not get paid unless we win your case. The call is free, it is confidential, and it is 24/7: 1-888-ATTY-911.
What follows is everything we know about how a clergy sexual abuse case is actually built, tried, and won in Wyoming — the law, the evidence, the medicine, the money, the defense playbook, and the roadmap for what to do next. We hold nothing back, because the person reading this needs every piece of it.
Wyoming’s Statute of Limitations for Childhood Sexual Abuse — The Discovery Rule That Protects You
This is the single most important legal question for most survivors reading this page: is it too late? For childhood sexual abuse in Wyoming, the answer is often no — even when the abuse happened decades ago.
Wyoming’s civil statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse permits a survivor to file a civil lawsuit within eight years after turning 18, or within three years after the discovery of injury caused by childhood sexual abuse, whichever is later. This is a discovery rule — and it is the central legal battleground in the Casper case, because the plaintiffs allege they did not discover the assaults until March and April 2024.
Under Wyoming law, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse may file a civil action within eight years after reaching the age of majority, or within three years after the discovery that the injury was caused by childhood sexual abuse — whichever period expires later.
That second prong — the discovery rule — is what makes these cases possible decades after the abuse. The law recognizes what trauma medicine has documented for years: survivors of childhood sexual abuse often do not connect the devastation in their adult lives — the substance abuse, the depression, the failed relationships, the inability to trust, the years of feeling broken without understanding why — to the abuse they suffered as children until therapy surfaces the connection. The three-year clock starts not when the abuse happened, but when the survivor discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, that the injury was caused by the childhood sexual abuse.
One of the plaintiffs’ attorneys in the Casper case said it plainly: sometimes people “don’t discover what happened to them until they wonder why their life has gone the way it has, and they go to therapy.” That is not a weakness in the case. That is the exact circumstance the discovery rule was written to address.
What the Defense Will Argue — and How We Answer
The institutional defendants in this case will almost certainly contest the discovery dates. Their argument will be that the plaintiffs should have discovered the abuse earlier — that the connection between their adult struggles and the childhood assaults was something they “should have known” years before 2024. This is the single most contested issue in delayed-discovery clergy abuse cases, and it is where the case is won or lost on the legal threshold.
The answer requires expert testimony from a forensic psychologist who specializes in childhood sexual abuse trauma and delayed discovery. The clinical phenomenon is well-documented: victims of childhood sexual abuse repress, compartmentalize, dissociate from, or simply fail to process the trauma until a therapeutic intervention surfaces it — sometimes decades later. This is not fringe psychology. It is the recognized clinical presentation of childhood sexual abuse trauma, and it is why Wyoming’s discovery rule exists.
Wyoming is also one of a handful of states with no criminal statute of limitations for child sexual abuse crimes — meaning criminal charges can theoretically be brought at any time, regardless of when the abuse occurred. One of the plaintiffs in the Casper case reportedly made a complaint to Casper police upon discovering what he believed happened to him. The civil case and any potential criminal investigation are separate tracks, but a police report can corroborate the timeline of discovery.
What This Means for You
If you were sexually abused as a child by a church worker, a youth minister, a teacher, a priest, a volunteer, or anyone in a position of trust within a religious institution in Wyoming — and you only recently connected the abuse to the harm it caused — the three-year discovery clock may have just started. The eight-year-from-18 clock may have already run, but the discovery rule is the later of the two, and it is the one that protects survivors who take decades to come forward.
You should not try to figure out whether your discovery date is legally sufficient on your own. That is a question a trial attorney answers with a forensic psychologist’s evaluation and a careful review of your therapy records and timeline. But you should know this: the law was written for people who take years to understand what was done to them. The delay is not a disqualification. It is the circumstance the law specifically covers.
The Legal Theories — How a Clergy Sexual Abuse Case Is Actually Built
A clergy sexual abuse case against an institution is built from several legal theories, each targeting a different failure by the institution. These are not alternatives — they are stacked, each adding a layer of accountability and a path to recovery.
Negligent Supervision and Retention
The Diocese of Cheyenne and Our Lady of Fatima Church employed the youth minister in a position involving direct access to minors. They provided him with housing where he could isolate children. They failed to supervise his interactions — despite what the complaint describes as actual or constructive notice that he was plying adolescent males with alcohol. The warning to Father Colibraro, if proven, is actual notice. Colibraro’s failure to act, if proven, is the breach. The institutions that placed the youth minister in a role of trust and authority over children owe a duty to ensure that person is safe, trustworthy, and properly supervised. When they fail that duty, they are liable for the harm that follows.
Negligent Hiring and Background Screening
Discovery should target what background checks, reference checks, psychological evaluations, or prior-conduct inquiries were performed before and during the youth minister’s tenure. If no adequate screening was done — or if red flags were ignored — the institution can be liable for putting a dangerous person in a position of access to children.
Premises Liability — Negligent Provision of Access
The church and diocese provided the youth minister with on-campus housing and permitted him to invite minors to that residence. This created the physical conditions that enabled two of the three alleged assaults. Providing a person in a youth-facing role with private quarters and unsupervised access to children on church property is a foreseeable risk the institutions created and failed to mitigate. The housing was not incidental — it was the setting of the alleged crimes.
Breach of Fiduciary Duty
The youth minister served as youth minister, teacher, and personal counselor to the plaintiffs. Each of these roles creates a fiduciary relationship — a relationship of trust and authority that requires the person in the role to act in the minors’ best interests. The institutions that placed him in these roles owe a corresponding duty to ensure that fiduciaries with access to vulnerable minors are safe, trustworthy, and properly supervised.
Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress
The youth minister’s alleged conduct — exploiting a position of religious authority to groom, intoxicate, and sexually assault minors under church auspices — meets the legal standard for extreme and outrageous conduct. The institutional defendants may face this claim if discovery reveals they knew or should have known of the risk and consciously disregarded it.
Institutional Concealment
If discovery reveals that the diocese or church knew of the youth minister’s conduct and failed to act — or that patterns of retaining or reassigning known abusers, as suggested by the Colibraro history and the diocese’s documented list of 12 substantiated allegations, constituted a systemic practice of concealment — plaintiffs may pursue claims for concerted action to conceal abuse and expose others to known risk. The pattern of abuse within the Diocese of Cheyenne — including the Bishop Hart and Colibraro histories and the 12 substantiated allegations on the diocese’s own list — is not background noise. It is evidence of a systemic institutional culture that, if proven, supports both punitive damages and a narrative of organizational indifference.
The Evidence Clock — What Exists, Who Holds It, and How Fast It Can Legally Die
This is the section that decides whether a decades-old case can be proven. The abuse happened in the 1990s. The evidence is 25 to 30 years old. Some of it is gone. Some of it is about to be gone. And the single most important thing a survivor can do is get a preservation letter out before more of it disappears.
Doug Hudson’s Personnel File — Diocese of Cheyenne and Our Lady of Fatima Church
This file establishes hiring, screening, supervision, discipline records, and any complaints or warnings about the youth minister during his tenure. Institutional records from the 1990s may be archived, redacted, or difficult to locate after 25+ years. A litigation hold must issue immediately. Who holds it: the diocese and the parish. How fast it can die: there is no fixed federal retention requirement for church employment records — the diocese’s own policies govern, and old records are routinely “archived” in ways that make them effectively inaccessible or are destroyed in routine purges.
Father Colibraro’s Personnel and Assignment Records — Diocese of Cheyenne
These records show what the diocese knew about Colibraro’s own abuse history, his supervision of the youth minister, his response to warnings about the youth minister’s behavior, and any pattern of assigning known risks to positions involving minors. Colibraro is deceased (2017), and his records may be subject to privilege or pastoral confidentiality claims. Document requests must be narrowly tailored to survive privilege objections. Who holds it: the diocese. How fast it can die: same uncertain retention as above — and a deceased supervisor’s records may be treated differently than a living employee’s.
Diocese of Cheyenne Insurance Policies from the 1990s
This is the single most time-sensitive evidence target. These policies determine whether there is insurance coverage for 1990s-era sexual abuse claims — including whether policies are occurrence-based or claims-made, what the coverage limits are, and whether there are exclusions for intentional acts or sexual misconduct. Insurance archaeology for decades-old policies is time-sensitive because carriers may have merged, archived, or destroyed old policy files. If occurrence-based policies from the 1990s can be located, they could substantially expand available recovery. If they cannot be located, or if the policies contain sexual misconduct exclusions, the collectibility picture changes dramatically. Who holds it: the diocese and its historical insurance carriers. How fast it can die: carriers routinely destroy old policy files on their own retention schedules — and a carrier that merged with or was acquired by another company may have lost track of pre-merger records entirely.
Internal Investigation Files and Review Board Records — Diocese of Cheyenne
The diocese maintains a public list of 12 individuals with substantiated abuse allegations. The internal review process behind that list — its records, methodologies, criteria, and timing — is a significant discovery target. These records may reveal what the diocese knew about the youth minister, about Colibraro, and about other abusers. They may show whether complaints were investigated, whether findings were shared with law enforcement, or whether they were concealed. These records are the institutional-knowledge core of the case, and they may be subject to privilege claims requiring targeted discovery motions. Who holds it: the diocese. How fast it can die: internal review board records are controlled entirely by the diocese — there is no external retention mandate.
Our Lady of Fatima Church Youth Program Records from the 1990s
These records establish who approved the youth minister’s housing, who authorized overnight trips, what supervision policies existed, and whether anyone raised concerns about the youth minister’s access to minors in private settings. Parish-level records from the 1990s may be incomplete, damaged, or stored in formats requiring expert retrieval. Who holds it: the parish. How fast it can die: parish record retention is governed by internal policy — there is no federal or state mandate forcing a parish to keep 30-year-old youth program records.
Casper Police Department Records
One plaintiff reportedly made a complaint to Casper police upon discovery. Law enforcement records involving sexual assault investigations have specific retention and confidentiality rules under Wyoming law. These records may corroborate the timeline of discovery, the institutional response, and whether any criminal investigation was initiated. Who holds it: Casper PD. How fast it can die: law enforcement retention schedules vary — some agencies purge unfounded or inactive sexual assault files on fixed timelines.
Witness Statements from Former Youth Program Participants, Parishioners, and Church Staff
Witnesses may corroborate the youth minister’s pattern of isolating minors, providing alcohol, and engaging in boundary-violating behavior. They may also reveal additional victims or prior complaints that were never formally documented. This is the most perishable evidence of all. Witness memories degrade over decades. Former youth program participants have scattered. Some witnesses may have died. Early witness identification and sworn statement preservation is essential — and it is the kind of work that cannot wait. Who holds it: the witnesses themselves. How fast it can die: human memory degrades every day, and people die — a witness who could have corroborated the pattern in 2024 may be gone by 2026.
The Preservation Letter — Why the Day You Call Matters
The preservation letter — a formal written demand that the defendants and their insurers freeze all relevant records — is the first thing that goes out the day a case opens. It is what converts routine document destruction into sanctionable spoliation. Without it, the diocese can legally destroy 30-year-old youth program records. With it, any destruction after notice is evidence the jury can be told about — and in some circumstances, the jury can be instructed to assume the destroyed records contained the worst possible information.
This is why we say: the day you call is the day the clock starts working for you instead of against you. Not the week. Not the month. The day.
The Proof Story — How a Case Like This Is Actually Built, Week by Week
Here is how a clergy sexual abuse case is built from the inside — the chronological walk from the day you call to the day the number is reached.
Week one: The preservation letter goes out — to the diocese, to the parish, to the school, and to any identifiable insurance carriers. The letter names every category of record we know about: personnel files, assignment records, insurance policies, internal investigation files, review board records, youth program records, housing arrangements, overnight trip authorizations, and any complaints or warnings. This freezes the evidence. From this point forward, any destruction is spoliation.
Weeks two through four: We begin witness identification. Former youth program participants from the 1990s. Former parishioners. Former church staff. We find them before they scatter further, before memories degrade further, before anyone has a chance to coordinate stories. Sworn statements are taken and preserved.
Months one through three: The discovery machinery starts turning. Document requests go out — narrowly tailored to survive privilege objections, broad enough to capture the institutional knowledge timeline. We demand Hudson’s personnel file, Colibraro’s assignment records, the diocese’s insurance policies from the 1990s, the internal investigation files, the review board records that produced the list of 12 substantiated allegations, and the parish’s youth program records.
Months three through six: Insurance archaeology. We trace the diocese’s coverage back to the 1990s — identifying carriers, policy numbers, coverage limits, and any exclusions. Carriers merge, archive, and destroy old files. This is time-sensitive work, and it is often the difference between a case with a real recovery path and a case where the institutional defendant is self-insured or uninsured for the relevant period.
Months six through twelve: Expert witnesses are retained. A forensic psychologist specializing in childhood sexual abuse trauma and delayed discovery establishes the validity of the discovery date and the causal nexus between the abuse and the documented injuries. A psychiatrist quantifies the damages. If the institutional knowledge pattern warrants it, an institutional church governance expert establishes the standard of care for youth protection in religious organizations during the relevant period.
Months twelve through eighteen: Depositions. The institutional decision-makers sit across the table and answer questions under oath. What did Colibraro know? When was he warned? What did he do in response? What did the diocese know about Colibraro’s own abuse history when it assigned him to supervise a youth minister? What did the review board find when it substantiated allegations against the 12 individuals on the public list? Were any of those findings shared with law enforcement? Were any concealed?
The number at the end: The case value is built from all of it — the documented institutional knowledge, the insurance coverage located, the expert testimony on damages, the witness corroboration of the pattern, and the jury’s assessment of what it means when a church puts a predator in a position of access to children and ignores the warning signs.
Casper, Wyoming — How This Case Lives in This Place
Casper sits in Natrona County, the second-largest city in Wyoming with a population of roughly 55,000. It is an oil and gas town at its economic roots — independent, self-reliant, conservative in the way that Wyoming communities tend to be. The Natrona County District Court handles major civil matters, and if a clergy sexual abuse case goes to trial, the jury that decides it will be drawn from that community.
That matters. Wyoming juries are not automatically sympathetic to large damages awards — they are careful, independent-minded people who take their civic responsibility seriously. But they also respond powerfully to evidence of institutional betrayal of children. The idea that a church put a predator in a position of access to boys, gave him a house on the church campus, ignored warnings that he was giving them alcohol, and assigned a supervisor who had his own abuse history — that cuts through political orientation. It goes to something every parent, every grandparent, every person in Casper understands: you do not let someone hurt children and you do not look the other way when you know it is happening.
The Diocese of Cheyenne oversees all Catholic parishes statewide from its administrative offices in the state capital — meaning institutional records, insurance archives, and the internal review board’s files are likely centered in Cheyenne, in Laramie County. A case filed in Natrona County may involve discovery that reaches across the state, and the institutional defendant’s headquarters is a three-hour drive from the courthouse where the case would be tried. That geographic reality is part of the case — it affects logistics, it affects witness availability, and it affects how the story of institutional knowledge is pieced together from records held in two different cities.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it too late to sue if the abuse happened decades ago in Wyoming?
It may not be. Wyoming’s civil statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse allows you to file within eight years after turning 18, or within three years after discovering that your injury was caused by the childhood sexual abuse — whichever is later. The discovery rule is the key: if you only recently connected the abuse to the harm it caused — through therapy, through reading about similar cases, through any trigger that made the connection clear — the three-year clock may have just started. Wyoming also has no criminal statute of limitations for child sexual abuse, meaning criminal prosecution remains theoretically possible regardless of when the abuse occurred.
What if I didn’t remember the abuse for years?
Delayed discovery is the norm for childhood sexual abuse, not the exception. The clinical literature is clear: victims of childhood sexual abuse often repress, compartmentalize, or fail to process the trauma until a therapeutic intervention surfaces it — sometimes decades later. The DSM-5 expressly recognizes a “delayed expression” specifier for PTSD. Wyoming’s discovery rule was written for exactly this circumstance. The fact that it took you years to understand what happened does not make your case weaker — it makes it the kind of case the discovery rule was designed to protect.
Can I sue the church or the diocese, not just the abuser?
Yes. The individual abuser is the direct perpetrator, but the institution that put him in a position of access to children, that failed to supervise him, that ignored warnings, and that failed to protect the minors in its programs can be held liable under theories of negligent supervision, negligent hiring, premises liability, breach of fiduciary duty, and — in cases involving conscious disregard of known risks — intentional infliction of emotional distress and claims for institutional concealment. The institutional defendants are typically where the insurance coverage and assets are found, which is where the real recovery path lives.
What if the abuser has died or moved away?
The individual abuser’s death or relocation does not end the case against the institution. The institutional defendants — the diocese, the parish, the school — remain liable for their own failures to supervise, protect, and respond. In many clergy abuse cases, the individual perpetrator is deceased, imprisoned, or judgment-proof, and the recovery comes entirely from the institutional defendants and their insurance carriers.
Will my therapy records become part of the lawsuit?
They may. The defendants will likely seek your therapy records in discovery, arguing they are relevant to the damages claim and the discovery date. This is not a reason to avoid therapy — it is a reason to have a lawyer who can manage the discovery process carefully, assert privilege where appropriate, and protect your privacy while building the case. You should know this upfront so you can make informed decisions about the litigation process. The therapy records are also some of the most powerful evidence in your case — they document the harm contemporaneously, often before any litigation motive exists.
How much is a clergy sexual abuse case worth in Wyoming?
We cannot promise a specific dollar amount — every case depends on its facts, and past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. For cases like the one filed in Casper — multiple plaintiffs, institutional defendants with documented notice of risk factors, a supervisor with his own abuse history — per-plaintiff value likely ranges from $250,000 to $1,500,000 or more. The $50,000 per plaintiff in the complaint is a jurisdictional floor for Wyoming district court, not a valuation. The actual value depends on insurance coverage availability for 1990s-era claims, the strength of institutional-knowledge evidence developed in discovery, and Wyoming jury attitudes. Punitive damages, if the pattern of institutional knowledge and inaction is proven, could significantly elevate total case value.
How long does a clergy sexual abuse case take?
These cases are not fast. The discovery process alone — document demands, insurance archaeology, expert retention, depositions — can take 12 to 18 months or more. If the case goes to trial, the timeline extends further. Many clergy abuse cases settle before trial, particularly when the institutional defendant has a strong interest in avoiding public disclosure of internal records. But you should expect the process to take one to three years from filing to resolution, and sometimes longer if appeals are involved. The urgency is not about the filing deadline — the SOL is satisfied — it is about evidence preservation. Witness memories degrade, institutional records age, and insurance policies disappear with every passing month.
Do I have to go to trial?
Not necessarily. Many clergy sexual abuse cases settle before trial, particularly when the institutional defendant faces significant public-exposure risk from the discovery process. Mediation is common in these cases — the diocese has an institutional interest in avoiding a public trial, and survivors often have an interest in validation and closure without the ordeal of testifying. But any settlement demand must account for insurance coverage limitations and the potential for punitive damages to drive value above policy limits. We prepare every case as if it will go to trial — because that is how you get the best settlement, and because if it does go to trial, we are ready.
What if I was abused by a church worker in a different Wyoming city or a different church?
The law that protects you is the same regardless of where in Wyoming the abuse occurred. Wyoming’s discovery rule applies statewide. The Diocese of Cheyenne oversees all Catholic parishes in Wyoming, so institutional records may be centralized in Cheyenne regardless of which parish the abuser was assigned to. If the abuse occurred in a non-Catholic church, the same legal theories — negligent supervision, negligent hiring, premises liability, breach of fiduciary duty — apply to any religious institution that put the abuser in a position of access to children. Contact us for a free consultation about your specific situation.
Is the call really free and confidential?
Yes. The consultation costs nothing. It is completely confidential — protected by attorney-client privilege from the moment you call. And we are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — we have live staff, not an answering service. When you call 1-888-ATTY-911, you reach a person who can help. We work on contingency, which means we do not get paid unless we win your case. You will not receive a bill for the consultation, and you are under no obligation to hire us after the call.
What if I am not sure yet whether I want to file a lawsuit?
That is completely normal. The decision to come forward is one of the hardest a survivor will ever make, and it should not be rushed. The purpose of the free consultation is to give you information — about your legal rights, about the timeline, about what the process looks like — so you can make that decision when you are ready, with full knowledge of what is involved. You do not have to decide to file a lawsuit the day you call. But you should call — because the evidence-preservation clock is running regardless of whether you have decided, and the preservation letter can go out before you make your final decision.
The Institutional Pattern — Why This Case Is Bigger Than One Abuser
The Diocese of Cheyenne has a documented history of abuse allegations that extends beyond the youth minister in this case. Perhaps the most widely known involves former Wyoming Bishop Joseph Hart, who faced multiple sexual abuse allegations that the diocese deemed credible. People first came forward with allegations in 1989. The diocese’s current bishop announced in 2018 that an outside investigation concluded Hart sexually abused two boys in Wyoming, and a third credible allegation was reported shortly after.
The Colibraro connection in the Casper case is not an isolated fact. It is a thread in a larger fabric. The lawsuit alleges that a priest with his own substantiated abuse history was assigned to supervise a youth minister who was allegedly giving alcohol to boys. When the warning came, nothing changed. The housing stayed. The access stayed. The boys stayed in danger.
This is what institutional liability looks like. It is not one mistake. It is a pattern of decisions — who to hire, who to supervise, who to assign to what role, what warnings to act on, what to report, what to conceal — that collectively create the conditions in which children are harmed. The pattern is the case. And the pattern is what moves a case from ordinary negligence into the territory where juries award punitive damages.
Call Now — The Evidence Is Dying, and Your Rights May Have Just Begun
The abuse may have happened decades ago. But the discovery — the moment you connected the harm to what was done to you — may have been recent. And under Wyoming law, that discovery may be the day your rights began, not the day they ended.
The evidence is dying. Witness memories degrade every day. Institutional records age. Insurance policies from the 1990s disappear as carriers merge and archive. The preservation letter that freezes the evidence — that converts routine document destruction into sanctionable spoliation — is the first thing that goes out the day you call.
The call is free. It is confidential. It is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We have live staff, not an answering service. We work on contingency — we do not get paid unless we win your case.
1-888-ATTY-911.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. This page is legal information, not legal advice. Contacting the firm is free and confidential. You are under no obligation to hire us by calling. But the evidence clock is running — and the day you call is the day it starts working for you.
