CONCORD (CA)
Modesto Bee
The Associated Press
Last Updated: December 25, 2004, 06:15:18 AM PST
CONCORD, Calif. (AP) - A Roman Catholic religious order has agreed to pay $6.3 million to settle lawsuits brought by three former students who were sexually abused by counselors and teachers at an elite private school in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The largest of the three settlements, at $4 million, would be one of the biggest in California for a plaintiff in a clergy sexual abuse case, attorneys and victims advocates said Friday.
The abuse occurred when the plaintiffs, now in their 30s and 40s, attended the Concord school operated by the Christian Brothers religious order. One man said a teacher molested him on a school-sponsored ski trip, and another said a counselor molested him at a retreat in Napa.
The third man says another counselor repeatedly molested him during off-campus sessions. The order had transferred the abuser to Concord even though he was known to have had relationships with "sexual overtones" at another school, according to a 1968 letter from a Christian Brothers provincial leader that the order turned over as part of the lawsuit.
Posted by kshaw at December 25, 2004 08:47 AM