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	Judge Fines NY Attorney over ''Baseless'' Church Abuse Cases By David B. Caruso Newsday February 9, 2007 http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny—churchabuse-lawsu0209feb09,0,608370.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork New York — A federal judge has fined an attorney $8,000 for repeatedly bringing lawsuits accusing Roman Catholic leaders of conspiring to cover up sexual abuse by priests. In a harshly worded ruling made public Friday, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty took New York lawyer John A. Aretakis to task for bringing a series of "utterly baseless" suits claiming the church's actions amounted to racketeering. Each of those lawsuits were subsequently thrown out by judges who said the allegations, even if true, didn't violate racketeering laws designed to deal with criminal enterprises like the Mafia. "No reasonable attorney would have believed these claims were warranted under existing law," Crotty wrote in a Thursday decision that was posted Friday on a court Web site. The sanctions came as part of a ruling in which Crotty tossed out yet another racketeering lawsuit filed on behalf of one of Aretakis' clients. This one involved a priest in Newark, N.J., the Rev. Robert Hoatson, who claimed he was forced out of a parochial school job for being critical of the church's handling of abuse cases. Aretakis, a vocal church critic who represents scores of abuse victims, vowed to appeal. He said there was nothing frivolous about claims that church officials had engaged in "an organized, institutional, long-ranging criminal conspiracy" by trying to protect priests accused of molesting children. "It really is a slap in the face to everything this country has learned about the Catholic Church and predatory Catholic priests over the past five years," he said of Crotty's ruling. Aretakis also claimed the judge was too closely involved with the church to be fair about the case. The ruling left open the possibility that Hoatson could still sue in state court over the loss of his job. Lawyers across the country have attempted to bring federal racketeering cases against Catholic leaders, in part because victims are barred from suing in many state courts if they wait too long to come forward. Attempts to make such a racketeering argument work, however, have almost entirely failed. In a majority of the recent cases involving abuse by religious figures, the victims kept the attacks to themselves for decades. Hoatson had named the Archdiocese of Newark, the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Albany, among others, as defendants in his suit. Ken Goldfarb, a spokesman for the Diocese of Albany, applauded the judge's ruling. "There are legitimate victims out there who did suffer abuse at the hands of clergy. We are not denying that at all," he said. "But the lawsuits this individual has filed on behalf of his clients have focused on other issues, not related to the original abuse, and they are baseless." Officials at the archdioceses in New York and Newark declined to comment Friday.
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