March 17, 2005

Church's experts testify lap-sitting did not signal abuse

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle

Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, March 17, 2005

A third-grader sitting on a priest's lap in his private living quarters is not necessarily a cause for concern, two sex-abuse experts testified Wednesday in San Francisco.

It all depends on what else was going on at the time, according to testimony from retired investigators from the sex crimes units of the FBI and the San Francisco Police Department.

Their opinions came on the final day of testimony in a groundbreaking lawsuit filed against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco by Dennis Kavanaugh, 47, who says he was repeatedly molested in the 1970s by a priest in a San Jose church.

The lap-sitting issue has come into play in part because of the testimony Tuesday of two other men who say they were also molested in separate incidents by the priest, the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard, at St. Martin of Tours Church.

They both testified that they had been sitting on Pritchard's lap as he molested them when another priest walked in on them in Pritchard's private quarters. Kavanaugh's attorneys have tried to show that as a result, the San Francisco Archdiocese, which oversaw the church, knew or should have known that Pritchard was a molester, did nothing about it and thus should be liable for damages.

Posted by kshaw at March 17, 2005 05:11 PM