St. Michael's Cathedral in Springfield, Mass./ John Phelan/wikimedia CC BY SA 3.0 Lawyers for an alleged abuse victim in the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts have asked the state’s chief justice to assign a special judge from outside western Massachusetts to the case, citing a potential for undue influence from people associated with the diocese. The alleged victim, identified as John Doe, claims he suffered trauma as a result of the diocese’s mishandling of an abuse allegation he brought against the late Christopher Weldon, Bishop of Springfield from 1950 to 1977. Doe, a former altar boy, alleges that Bishop Weldon, along with two priests of the Springfield diocese, repeatedly abused him in the 1960s, and that he first remembered his abuse in 2013. Weldon died in 1982.