A priest sued for defamation after writing a book about the 1957 death of a Foley, Minn., teenager has settled the case, according to his attorney.

In his book "Raising Roger's Cross," the Rev. Charles Kunkel gave the fictional names "Mack," "Dewey" and "Cindy" to three people in the book, which claims that Roger Vaillancourt was tortured and castrated before he was hit by a car and died.

Those three people sued Kunkel, publisher AuthorHouse and the Crosier Fathers and Brothers in Hennepin County.

The parties agreed to the terms of a settlement during mediation late last month, said Dan Eller, an attorney who represented Kunkel. He did not release the terms of the settlement, which he said had not yet been filed with the court.

The book and the lawsuits used only pseudonyms for the three individuals, now in their late 60s, who each sought damages of more than $50,000.

Last year an attorney for the three plaintiffs, Marshall Tanick, said everyone in Foley knew who Kunkel was talking about, despite the fictional names.

When Vaillancourt died in 1957, officials thought the 17-year-old was killed after a car ran over him 4 miles north of Princeton, Minn. No autopsy was done.

Kunkel wrote the book after interviewing 150 people over four years. He became convinced that Vaillancourt had been murdered, and Vaillancourt's body was exhumed in 2005.

A forensic anthropologist and a medical examiner wrote in court affidavits that Vaillancourt suffered injuries to his face and ribs that were not consistent with being run over by a vehicle. But nothing else has come of the inquiry.

ASSOCIATED PRESS