HAYWARD (CA)
KPIX
04/13/05 8:05 PDT
HAYWARD (BCN)
An Alameda County Superior Court jury ruled today that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland was negligent in allowing two former Antioch altar boys to be molested by their parish priest.
After only a day of deliberations, the 10-woman, two-man panel awarded Robert and Tom Thatcher a total of $1.93 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
Their attorney Rick Simons had asked for a total of $27 million in damages, but he said today that the verdict was a victory for the Thatcher brothers nonetheless because, "We established for history's sake that the Bishop of Oakland had a policy of hiding known child molesters."
Although many Catholic priests have stood trial on sex abuse allegations, Simons said he believes the Thatchers' case is the first trial in the U.S. in which the policies of a diocese have been put on trial.
Posted by kshaw at April 14, 2005 06:07 AM