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	New Monitor Named to Oversee Sex Abuse Payments WKYT March 14, 2006 http://www.wkyt.com/Global/story.asp?S=4630504&nav=4CAL BURLINGTON, Ky. -- A retired federal judge will oversee payments to victims of sexual abuse in the Diocese of Covington as part of an $85 million class-action settlement. Thomas Lambros, the former chief judge of the northern district of Ohio, also will serve as one of two special masters reviewing claims and deciding how much each victim will receive. Special Judge John Potter of Louisville appointed Lambros as monitor on Tuesday after attorneys in the case objected to his original choice to have lawyer Matt Garretson of Blue Ash, Ohio, oversee payments. Potter said the appointment of Lambros to monitor the settlement isn't a reflection on the attorneys involved. Rather, it's a way of having one point of contact as the money is paid out to victims, Potter said. "My proceeding this way is my way of ensuring I've got somebody to go to, somebody I can talk to," Potter said. "It's my desire to have someone in charge who reports to me." The settlement covers 361 victims who claim they were abused over a period of 50 years by priests in a diocese that once included 57 counties across a large swath of Kentucky. Potter previously appointed Lambros and William Burleigh, chairman of the board of the E.W. Scripps Co., as the special masters in the case to review claims. Victims will receive varying amounts, based on the severity and duration of the abuse they suffered. Some money also will be set aside to pay for counseling for abuse victims and attorneys fees will come from a portion of each settlement paid. Victims will receive awards ranging from $5,000 to $450,000, and those in the highest category of abuse will be eligible to apply to a special fund for extraordinary claims. During a hearing Tuesday in Boone County Circuit Court, Potter also said he's weighing a request from the plaintiff's attorneys for 30 percent of the settlement fund as the fee in the case. Attorney Stan Chesley of Cincinnati said the time and effort put into the case merits 30 percent of the fund, or about $25.5 million. Chesley said of the 389 people who filed claims in the case, 41 filed letters with the court about attorneys fees. Of those, nine were opposed to 30 percent, while the rest were supportive of the amount, Chesley said. One of the claimants in the case, Dr. Robert Loheide of Terre Haute, Ind., said Chesley and three associates, Bob Steinberg, Michael O'Hara and Ann Oldfather, stayed in constant contact with class members and were compassionate, professional and competent. Loheide, a Covington, Ky., native, said he was molested "in some rural farm on some gravel road in Kentucky." The attorneys, at their own expense, hired an investigator and found the place, Loheide said. "They took on a tremendous financial risk in taking this on," Loheide said Tuesday. Loheide and diocese attorney Carrie Huff said the plaintiffs' attorneys also helped bring to light the names and histories of clergy accused of molesting children. "These four people right here have changed the practice of the diocese in protecting children," Loheide said. Huff said the diocese has used some of the information in crafting its new policies regarding sexual abuse allegations. "They got a lot of information that we had no other way of getting and they shared it with us," Huff said. Outside of the class-action settlement, the diocese settled 58 cases with other people who had claims of abuse. The diocese paid $10.8 million to settle those cases, according to court records. Covington is just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. The Covington diocese now spans 14 counties and has 89,000 parishioners. The lawsuit also covers some Kentucky counties that were part of the diocese until 1988, when a new diocese in Lexington formed.
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