HAYWARD (CA)
Contra Costa Times
By Randy Myers
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
HAYWARD - A jury of 10 women and two men, including five people who identify themselves as Catholic, is expected to hear opening arguments today in a civil trial over decades-old sexual abuse allegations involving the Diocese of Oakland.
Two former Antioch altar boys, brothers Robert and Tom Thatcher, are seeking compensatory damages from the church. The brothers claim they were abused by Robert Ponciroli at St. Ignatius in Antioch between 1979 and 1981. Ponciroli was later defrocked.
Robert Thatcher, who now lives in Arizona, is also seeking punitive damages.
Because the diocese has conceded it acted negligently in the case, the jury now must decide whether the church should pay both kinds of damages and how much it should pay.
Church lawyers have argued that Robert Thatcher's pursuit of punitive damages, which would likely drive up the award amount, does not meet necessary legal criteria.
The trial could tarnish the church's reputation because lead plaintiffs attorney Rick Simons is likely to focus on a 1975 memo that Bishop Floyd Begin, who is dead now, wrote to himself.
The memo indicates that the diocese knew of complaints from altar boys and parents about Ponciroli and that the altar boys had circulated a petition protesting how he treated them.
Posted by kshaw at March 28, 2005 07:38 AM