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	Judge Sets Trials for Numerous SoCal Clergy Abuse Cases Associated Press, carried in San Luis Obispo Tribune [Los Angeles CA] January 05, 2007 http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/16385704.htm Los Angeles - A judge overseeing a huge number of lawsuits claiming Southern California priests abused children set 20 of the cases for trial and put dozens of others on the road to court. Superior Court Judge Haley J. Fromholz also said Thursday that he will handle many pretrial decisions on what kinds of evidence can be submitted in about 700 cases. The judge will rule on decisions affecting more than one case rather than having the trial judges decide, a plaintiff's attorney said. "It shapes the course of all of these trials. It's very, very momentous," said Andrea Leavitt, who is handling some lawsuits that will be heard in San Diego. "Your case can live and die on pretrial motion evidentiary rulings" because they decide "what the jurors will hear or don't hear," she said. On Thursday, Fromholz set trial dates in June, July and August for 20 suits against the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese. The archdiocese said in December it would pay $60 million to settle 45 lawsuits by people who claimed they were abused by priests, but as many as 485 others are still pending. "We are pleased to get these cases moving and hope this will be a year of resolution," said J. Michael Hennigan, an attorney representing Cardinal Roger Mahony, head of the archdiocese. Some of the other cases to be tried this summer involve Clinton Hagenbach, who died in 1987. Lawsuits contend that he abused 14 boys between 1968 and 1986. The archdiocese settled one claim for $1.5 million in 2002. Fromholz also released about 55 cases for trial in San Diego and some could reach trial as early as June, Leavitt said. The suits, which allege sexual battery of children and negligence, were filed against dioceses in San Diego and San Bernardino counties and several religious orders. The decision will move along cases that were filed in 2003. "We have been stalled" because unsuccessful settlement talks were under way, Leavitt said. Some of the cases are among the most severe, involving claims of serial abuse by a now-deceased priest, Franz Robier, who is alleged to have molested about two dozen girls. The suits claim that Robier molested some girls in the 1950s and that the San Diego diocese was aware of the allegations but simply moved him from parish to parish until he retired in 1983.
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