OAKLAND (CA)
KTVU
POSTED: 9:03 pm PST March 11, 2005
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Jury selection will begin Monday in a lawsuit against the Diocese of Oakland by two former altar boys who allege that church leaders allowed a known pedophile priest to molest them in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Alameda County lawsuit and a separate suit starting up in San Francisco this week are the first two civil cases to reach trial under a 2002 state law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on damage claims against institutions such as religious organizations that gave known child molesters access to more victims.
That law allowed victims of abuse dating back many years, even as far back as the 1930s, to file suit during a one-year window in 2003.
The case before Superior Court Judge Harry Sheppard involves retired priest Robert Ponciroli of the Diocese of Oakland, who's accused of abusing former altar boys Bob Thatcher, now 34, and his brother Tom, now 37, at St. Ignatius in Antioch from 1979 to 1982. The suit alleges negligence by the Diocese of Oakland.
The San Francisco case involves the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard, a priest who worked for the Archdiocese of San Francisco in the 1960s and 70s. It was brought by Dennis Kavanaugh, a former student and parishioner at St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church in San Jose, where he alleges he was molested by Pritchard in 1972 and 1973 when Kavanaugh was 12 and 13 years old.
Posted by kshaw at March 12, 2005 05:49 AM