OAKLAND (CA)
Orange County Register
The Associated Press
OAKLAND – The Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa has agreed to pay more than $3.3 million to a woman who said she was sexually abused by a priest more than 20 years ago, the victim's attorney said on Friday.
Former Santa Rosa resident Roberta Saum, 44, will receive $3,315,000, the largest settlement for a female victim of sexual abuse by a priest in this country and the third-largest for any California victim, according to her attorney, Jeff Anderson.
The lawsuit, one of 10 filed against the Santa Rosa Diocese, was settled before the case could reach trial, which had been scheduled to begin next month.
Diocese attorneys did not immediately return calls seeking comment Friday.
Saum, a software engineer who now lives in the Sierra foothills, said she was abused and exploited by Don Kimball, now defrocked, between 1976 and 1982 when she was a student at Resurrection Parish in Santa Rosa.
Posted by kshaw at April 23, 2005 07:14 AM