OAKLAND (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
Cicero A. Estrella, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 4, 2006
A defrocked priest who has admitted molesting numerous boys from 1969 to 1980 on Tuesday settled a lawsuit filed by three of his former altar boys.
Patrick O'Shea, 73, agreed in Oakland Superior Court to pay $100,000 to each of the plaintiffs, who said they were among the boys molested by the former monsignor from 1969 to 1980, the plaintiff's lawyers said.
As part of the agreement, O'Shea couldn't contest any of the charges and had to apologize in open court to his victims -- Wayne Presley, 47, of Foster City, Matthew Hadden, 47, of Sonoma, and Steve Lucarelli, 49, of Oregon.
"That was critical to our clients," attorney Larry Drivon said. "It's one thing to get every last nickel that a guy's got, but it's something else to have public acknowledgement of what happened to them all those years ago."