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	Negotiations in Priest Sex-Abuse Cases to Resume This Week By Teri Figueroa North County Times [California] February 24, 2007 http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/02/25/news/top_stories/20_38_382_24_07.txt Lawyers representing the Catholic Diocese of San Diego and those representing alleged sex-abuse victims will huddle in a Los Angeles courthouse this week at a judge's order to try to settle dozens of lawsuits. The alleged victims of abuse by clergy and other church workers are not suing the priests themselves, some of whom are dead, but rather are suing the diocese, claiming that it allowed the abuse to happen. Some of the claims involve North County persons or allegedly took place in North County. A few of the suits involve abuse by a former priest, Edward Anthony Rodrigue — a man twice convicted of child molestation. He served as a priest in Encinitas 40 years ago. Last month, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Haley Fromholz ruled that Rodrigue's victims can seek punitive damages from the Diocese of San Diego. Fromholz is overseeing the priest abuse cases filed in Southern California. He has thus far released five San Diego cases for trial. One of the cases set for trial within the next few months also alleges abuse by Rodrigue, although that abuse came when he was a priest at a Calexico parish— his immediate assignment after he was transferred from Encinitas. People have brought more than 850 civil lawsuits against Roman Catholic dioceses in California since the state temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for filing sex-abuse claims in 2002. The Catholic Diocese of San Diego is named in 143 suits, according to church officials. Orange County-based attorney John Manly, who is representing victims in about 18 San Diego cases, puts the number of victims at around 160, including newly filed cases. San Diego attorney Andrea Leavitt, who is representing eight victims, said parishes all over the county are identified in the suits, and include former and current North County residents. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Anthony Mohr issued an order Wednesday for attorneys on both sides to appear in his courtroom for face-to-face talks. The lawyers will continue negotiations this week. A similar eleventh-hour negotiation involving the Orange County diocese led to a $100 million settlement in 2005 between the church and plaintiffs claiming abuse by priests. San Diego Bishop Robert Brom told parishioners in a letter distributed last weekend with church bulletins that the diocese is mulling bankruptcy if settlements cannot be reached with abuse victims before the trials begin. Leavitt called the mention of filing bankruptcy a "stalling tactic," and said she is "not optimistic" about reaching a settlement during the negotiations this week. One suit claims abuse in Encinitas In one of the Rodrigue suits, filed at the end of January, a man referred to in court documents as "John Roe 50" states that he was abused when Rodrigue was a clergyman assigned at St. John the Evangelist in Encinitas 40 years ago. John Roe 50 has filed suit against the diocese citing a number of claims, including fraud, negligence, and sexual battery. The suit claims the church knew, or had reason to know, that Rodrigue was abusing children and "failed to take reasonable measures to prevent further sexual abuse." In 1979, Rodrigue pleaded no contest to the sexual assault of an Ontario boy and was sentenced to probation. He registered as a sex offender in 1980 and was removed from the priesthood in 1992. He served 8 1/2 years of his 10-year prison sentence for a 1997 sexual assault on an 11-year-old boy, and was released from prison last year. According to information from the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, Rodrigue served at 10 parishes in Southern California between 1963 and 1979. "Healing and justice" Joelle Casteix, the southwest regional director for the nationwide Survivors Network, said Friday that the "No. 1 goal (in the settlements) is to make sure the survivors get healing and justice. "And the only way to get that is if the settlements include release of documents" detailing who knew what and when they knew it, Casteix said. "The only way to get accountability is to ensure this doesn't happen again." The release of documents was a part of the Orange County settlement. In that settlement and others in California, the plaintiffs' attorneys said, the ballpark settlement figure for each victim generally fell between $1 million and $1.5 million. Attorney Leavitt said that some of the victims do want the documents released, but that is "not necessarily true across the board." "All the victims want accountability, justice, the end to gamesmanship, and they don't want lip service," Leavitt said. "This late in the game, words are cheap and not an excuse or substitution. It seems that the only thing that is meaningful to the church is a monetary compensation for the victims." One local advocate for victims of sexual abuse said Friday it is "highly unlikely" that money is the primary motivation for reporting abuse. That's because "addressing these issues does mean that many people come to know what happened to you," said Marva Bledsoe, the executive director of the Oceanside-based Women's Resource Center, which serves North County. The organization has services available for victims of molestation, including adults molested as children. Reporting instances of childhood sexual abuse is difficult but necessary, Bledsoe said. "High-profile or low-profile, adult man or adult woman, it takes a lot of guts. You must be brave to talk about that," Bledsoe said. "I know how much courage it takes, and how much pain it can cause them. "Adults need to go back and address the abuses that happened to them as children," Bledsoe said, "so they can move on with their lives to be successful adults." The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 631-6624 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.
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