SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
NBC 11
POSTED: 1:14 pm PST March 17, 2005
UPDATED: 1:28 pm PST March 17, 2005
A San Francisco Superior Court jury is expected to begin deliberating Thursday afternoon in a civil lawsuit in which a San Jose man claims a Roman Catholic priest molested him 30 years ago.
Dennis Kavanaugh, 47, claims the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard molested him a number of times in a San Jose parish between 1971 and 1973.
The defendant in the case is the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, which at the time supervised the parish.
The archdiocese has conceded that the molestation took place, but contends church officials were not responsible because they did not know about it.
Archdiocese attorney James Goodman told the jury during closing arguments, "This is a very unfortunate case about a man who, as he was entering his teenage years, was unfortunately the victim of unlawful sexual conduct by a Roman Catholic priest."
Posted by kshaw at March 17, 2005 05:10 PM