CALIFORNIA
Duluth News Tribune
BY CHRIS KNAP, ANN PEPPER, RACHANEE SRISAVASDI AND ANDREW GALVIN
The Orange County Register
LOS ANGELES - (KRT) - Bishop Tod D. Brown walked down a long hallway at the Los Angeles Superior Court Monday to apologize to victims of clerical sexual abuse and authorize the release of thousands of pages of personnel files that victims say will show that the church protected accused priests.
The 23-page, $100 million settlement made public Monday with 90 victims alleging abuse by Catholic priests, nuns and lay teachers in Orange County is the largest payout of its kind in history.
The documents do not detail the names or the payouts to victims, in order to protect their privacy. But plaintiffs' lawyers said payments ranged from $50,000 to a few victims who got nearly $4 million.
"All of us are here today because terrible things have happened. The sexual abuse of minors took place in our midst," Brown said.
He said changes in diocesan personnel policies will ensure, "as much as is humanly possible, that these things will never happen again. ... Nothing is more important than the protection of our children and our youth."
Posted by kshaw at January 4, 2005 08:58 PM