SACRAMENTO (CA)
Mercury News
JENNIFER COLEMAN
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO - Two Northern California Catholic dioceses agreed to pay more than $42 million to settle 41 clergy sex abuse claims, resulting in the dismissal of all but one lawsuit against the two organizations.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento agreed Wednesday to pay $35 million to 33 victims just "two minutes" before a jury trial was set to begin in one of the cases, attorney Larry Drivon of Stockton said at a news conference in front of the Sacramento Superior Courthouse.
"I don't think it's a coincidence that the diocese has finally found its pastoral side the morning of the trial," Drivon said.
Also Wednesday, the Diocese of Santa Rosa announced it will pay $7.3 million to eight plaintiffs. The settlement is in addition to a $3.15 million agreement reached last month with Roberta Saum, now 44, who claimed former priest Donald Kimball sexually abused her for several years starting when she was 15.
The settlements are "an acknowledgment that what happened to us was really horrible," Saum said at the news conference.