California Injury Blog

The Catholic Diocese of Yakima in Washington State has paid $200,000 to settle lawsuits brought by four women who accused a now-deceased priest of brutally raping them when they were young girls in the 1960s. According to an article in the Yakima Herald-Republic, the bishop apologized to the women, but the diocese denied liability in the matter.

It’s been the general story line of the Catholic Church sexual abuse saga. Grown men and women melt and are reduced to shameful tears as they recall the nightmarish experiences they’ve been through with these so-called “men of God.” According to the plaintiffs, the diocese did nothing to stop Rev. Michael Simpson, the Irish priest with a drinking problem, who allegedly grabbed the girls and raped them on the desk in his rectory office with hairbrush handles.

The victims apparently lived with the pain and shame for decades. Rose Lamey of Seattle was the first victim to publicly come forward and tell the truth about Simpson’s atrocious conduct. Simpson died in Ireland in 1977 and the diocese has spent about $1.25 million to settle claims involving seven priests.

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The Diocese of Scranton in Pennsylvania has agreed to pay $3 million to a man who brought a federal civil suit against the diocese saying that they didn’t do anything about a priest who abused him as a teen. The man, identified only as John Doe in court filings, said in his lawsuit that former priest Albert M. Liberatore, who is now 42, abused him from 1999 to 2002 when he was pastor at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Duryea, according to a news report in The Times-Tribune.

The complaint also alleged that the diocese, bishop and other higher-ups did nothing to prevent further abuse from happening and didn’t even heed warnings that this was going on in one of their parishes. Liberatore was defrocked only in 2005 when he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing this victim. He was sentenced to 10 years probation, the article said.

While the priest got to remain free, the victim was reportedly living a nightmare. The abuse led to substance abuse and addiction making it impossible for him to get anywhere with his education. The plaintiff’s attorney told the newspaper that this case was all about the Catholic Church taking “legal and moral” responsibility for not doing enough to protect its children and parishioners – the people who look up to them for moral and spiritual guidance.

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After years of talks and marathon negotiations, the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego has agreed to pay 144 victims abused by their priests $198.1 million. According to a news report in the Los Angeles Times, the settlement is more than twice what the diocese first offered before filing for bankruptcy protection in February. In fact, the Times article even states that the settlement even tops the average of $1.3 million in the recent landmark Los Angeles Archdiocese settlement with its victims.

The San Diego diocese’s lawyers had said at first that unlike Los Angeles, this diocese had no proper insurance coverage or assets to dole out the settlement without seriously hampering services provided by the church. But all that changed late August when a bankruptcy judge criticized a meager $95-million offer by the diocese and referred to the diocese’s financial record keeping as “Byzantine,” the Times article states.

The historic Los Angeles settlement was followed by emotional outbursts from victims and this one was no different. According to the article, many victims got permission to hug U.S. District Court Judge Leo Pappas, who oversaw the settlement negotiations, and even shake his hand and thank him. Many were crying and the judge himself became emotional, the article reports. The church issued a statement of apology. Church officials say the settlement takes them “beyond available resources” and will have a tremendous impact on the diocese’s services for years to come.

So who pays how much? According to the article, the diocese pays about $77 million, its insurance carrier shells out $75 million, religious orders will pay $30 million and the Diocese of San Bernardino, with help from its insurance carrier, will pay about $15 million.

Continue reading "San Diego Diocese Settles With Sex Abuse Victims for $198 Million" »

The recent settlement reached by the Los Angeles Archdiocese certainly catches our collective breath for the staggering amounts of money involved. At $660 million, it is the largest sexual abuse compensation package negotiated in the country. The settlement resolves over 500 claims of child sexual abuse at the hands of Roman Catholic clergy just before the first of the cases were to start trial.

Is the settlement amount a reflection of how badly the Archdiocese wanted to keep its secrets secret? Was it coincidence that the first of many clergy sex abuse trials was about to start? Before this is over, the Catholic Church and its insurance companies will have paid over a billion dollars in settlements to abuse victims. Apparently it was worth a billion dollars to the Catholic Church to keep their dirty laundry from being aired in public courtrooms with the media hanging on every word.

A report in the Los Angeles Times stated that each of the 508 plaintiffs could receive amounts ranging from just about $100,000 to over $3 million. That is a big spread. How are the individual claims going to be valued? The short answer is, on the relative value of each case, prorated against the entire settlement fund.

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On Monday, an unprecedented event of enormous significance happened in a courtroom at the Los Angeles Superior Court. Cardinal Roger Mahony signed a historic $660-million settlement with more than 500 plaintiffs who alleged that they had suffered sexual abuse in the hands of Roman Catholic priests who served parishes that come under the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

We heard the sound bytes on radio. We read pages and pages of analysis in newspapers and on the Internet in the days leading to the formalizing of this agreement. We saw powerful reactions from victims on television. Hallelujah! We even heard an apology from Cardinal Mahony to the victims who have undergone nothing short of psychological and emotional torture for years if not decades and suffered in silence for most of that time.

The settlement is the largest payout by a diocese, says a news article in the Los Angeles Times’ Web site. But the victims who fought the Roman Catholic Church for five years will tell you that no amount of money or apologies can right the horrendous wrongs these men have done to innocent little children as well as women who trusted and respected these so-called spiritual leaders. But the money is the lowest penalty the diocese can pay to compensate the victims for what they have suffered, the memories and effects of which they will continue to suffer for the rest of their lives.

Yet, the biggest implication of this settlement, far more valuable than the money is the fact that it is a vindication for the victims. It is an admission by the Roman Catholic Church of their wrongdoing. It is confirmation, as one of the attorneys for the victims said, that “they did nothing wrong – it was not their fault.”

Having represented victims of clergy abuse, I know very well that many victims blame themselves for the abuse they endured - and that’s what tortures them and eats them up from within. It’s that sense of guilt that results in their silent suffering, the hiding from the truth, the shame of it all. In many media interviews over the last two days, I heard victims say the same as our clients have said, that the abuse completely messed up their lives; that they became alcoholics, resorted to drug abuse and struggled to come to terms with their sexual identity. Most victims had failed marriages. How does anybody put a price on this type of suffering?

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Victims of clergy abuse granted opportunity to hold Catholic Church accountable.

In what was a historic decision, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered the revival of lawsuits claiming fraud against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in various alleged incidents of molestations by priests.

According to a news report by the Associated Press, the court closed the door on negligence suits filed by abuse victims against the diocese because the three-year statute of limitations had expired. But the state high court, in a surprise move and a 5-2 decision, reinstated the victims' claims of fraud and ordered further proceedings to determine if the six-year limit for such claims had expired.

Victim advocates welcomed the court's unprecedented decision saying it will give victims of such abuse an opportunity to seek justice against Wisconsin church officials who knowingly covered up abuse for many years. Peter Isely, director of Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP),was quoted in the article stating the monumental decision allows victims to hold perpetrators accountable for their actions.

"There was an intentional policy to misrepresent, deceive and lie to every citizen in this state as bishops systematically transferred known child rapists through virtually every community in Wisconsin," he told the news agency.

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The majority of victims of clergy sexual abuse are women, not young boys. Many of these women hesitate to discuss their experiences because of shame and the paralyzing belief that they somehow "deserved it". These statements are taken from Peggy Warren's website where she tells her story of manipulation and sexual abuse at the hands of her Catholic priest.
Peggy and her husband, Bret Warren, tell their story of "...lies, deceit, corruption, cover-up, double talk, reverse accusations, forgetfulness, back stabbing, hate and pure bull----, all from the Catholic Church, more specifically the Diocese of Wichita..." on their website, designed to broadcast their story and be a resource for other abused women. It is a story of a predatory Catholic priest operating in Wichita, Kansas and the havoc his actions wrecked on the Warren family. It is the story of a clergyman, Nicholas Voelker, acting out his own issues and taking advantage of his position of trust to sexually assault a parishioner and how the Catholic Church hierarchy handled it.

Read our interview of Peggy Warren "Adult Victims of Clergy Abuse -- They Suffer in Silence".

Even though I have represented clergy abuse victims and seen the similarities of their stories and how the abuse experience has wrecked havoc in their lives, I was not aware of the frequency of sexual and physiological abuse adult women have suffered at the hands of priests, pastors, rabbis and other men operating as "men of God". Growing up as a Catholic school kid, my mother never understood why I didn't trust the priests. As a primary school kid, I knew something wasn't right with a few priests that had their favorite parishioners, be they boys or women.

Call me if you need a confidential, no obligation consultation. John Bisnar of Bisnar|Chase – 800-259-6373.

An order of Roman Catholic priests reached a tentative settlement last week with nine men and women who say they were abused by a Jesuit priest over a 16-year period, according to an Associated Press news report published in the Daily Breeze newspaper. The deal mediated by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge will reportedly give each of the victims $1.6 million.

The deal was reached Thursday morning after several days of closed-door talks mediated by Judge, Charles McCoy, Rev. Alfred Naucke, a spokesman for the Jesuits of the California Province, told an AP reporter. The news agency reported that it learned through an anonymous source that the settlement was for $14.4 million although that amount was not officially disclosed. The settlement is yet to be signed by all parties.

The money for the victims will not come from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, but from the Jesuit order itself and its insurance companies. The accusations involve Mark Falvey, a priest who allegedly abused 10 children during a 16-year period beginning in 1959. Falvey died in 1975, the AP article reported. Falvey was ordained in California, but spent several years in China and returned to Los Angeles in 1959. He then served for 15 years at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Hollywood. While at that church, he is accused of abusing children younger than 12 and, in some cases, raping them in the church.

Continue reading "Sex Abuse Cases Settle For $14 Million" »

The clergy abuse victims’ advocates who dogged the Roman Catholic Church over sexual abuse by its clergy have now turned their attention to the Southern Baptists, accusing America's largest Protestant denomination of also failing to root out molesters, according to an in-depth article posted on CNN.

The Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (www.snapnetwork.org) has started a campaign to call attention to alleged sex abuse committed by Southern Baptist ministers and concealed by churches. The group has presented a letter to Southern Baptist Convention executive committee members in Nashville, asking the group to adopt a zero-tolerance policy on clergy sexual abuse and to create an independent review board to investigate molestation reports. It sounds all too familiar doesn’t it?

Consider this. In the past six months SNAP has received reports of about 40 cases of sexual abuse by Southern Baptist ministers with some of the incidents dating back many years.

Church leaders concede there have been some incidents of clergy abuse in Southern Baptist congregations, but say their hands are tied when it comes to investigating complaints across the denomination.

“They don't want to see this problem,” said Christa Brown, a SNAP member from Austin, Texas, who says she was sexually abused as a child by a Southern Baptist minister. “That's tragic because they're imitating the same mistakes made by Catholic bishops.”

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A sex scandal has sparked an exodus from Faith Crossing Church in Forney, Texas, according to one of its former youth ministers, according to an article in the Dallas Morning News.

The church's pastor, 45-year-old Lester A. Cody III, faces two counts of sexually assaulting a young family friend who belonged to the church when it was in Mesquite. The girl was 15 at the time, in 2002. Now 20, she went to authorities in October after finally telling her mother what had happened, according to a Mesquite police affidavit, the article states.

The church, which had more than 100 members, now has only four or five families, according to the report. Cody, who was arrested in November and indicted in January, has however maintained his innocence at his first court appearance Monday. He has denied all charges and his wife and parents stand by him, reportedly. If convicted, Mr. Cody would face up to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine on each charge.

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