California Court Case Involves Former Milwaukee Pastor
By Marie Rohde
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
February 7, 2007
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=563335
Some 3,000 pages of records on a notorious pedophile priest that the Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese fought to keep secret will be released by a California court within the next 30 days.
Attorneys for the victims and the judge have long had full access to the documents; the decision forces the public release, a move the church had vigorously fought.
In his decision, California Superior Court Judge Peter D. Lichtman noted that other documents on the same priest, Siegfried Widera, had earlier been released by the Diocese of Orange (County) in California. The Milwaukee documents, he said, support the common theme recounted by abuse victims: "Priests with known sexual proclivities have been handed off from one location to another without regard to the potential harm to the children of the church as well as the family members of those children."
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| Siegfried Widera. The implicated priest killed self in Mexico as police closed in. |
Kathleen Hohl, spokeswoman for the Milwaukee Archdiocese, said the church would not appeal the decision and is in the process of concealing the names of victims in the documents, as ordered by the court.
The release of the documents is part of a settlement agreement reached by the archdiocese in connection with a lawsuit filed by eight California victims of Widera, a Milwaukee priest who was transferred to California after a checkered history in Wisconsin that included a criminal conviction of abusing a boy in 1973. He was facing 42 counts of child molestation when he committed suicide in 2003 by leaping from a motel balcony in Mexico as federal officers closed in on him.
Last year, the Milwaukee Archdiocese agreed to pay the California victims $13.3 million. In 2004, the Diocese of Orange agreed to pay the victims $15 million.
In his decision, Lichtman noted that the production of the records is necessary and of "no less import or significance" than the monetary settlement.
While John Rothstein, a lawyer representing the Milwaukee Archdiocese, described the documents as "insurance and business records," the court decision indicates that Widera's seminary records and correspondence with a number of archdiocesan officials are in the file.
Michael Finnegan, a Minneapolis lawyer representing four Wisconsin victims in a case that will be heard by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in April, said Wisconsin victims older than 20 have been precluded from suing the church because of two rulings made in the mid-1990s. Finnegan said that case involves three victims of Widera who were abused after his conviction but before he was sent to California. It also involves a victim of another Wisconsin priest, Franklyn Becker.
Becker also was sued by California victims.
Finnegan said the basis of the Supreme Court case is a fraud charge against the church. Much of the evidence to support the claim, he said, was uncovered as part of the California case. The documents that are to be released could be used in Wisconsin if the Supreme Court allows the cases to go to trial here.
E-mail: mrohde@journalsentinel.com
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