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	8 Men Settle Sex-Abuse Lawsuits Priest - after Mini-Trials, Agreements Are Reached in Half the Claims Left against the Portland Archdiocese By Ashbel S. Green The Oregonian [Portland OR] March 15, 2007 http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1173925532233260.xml&coll=7 Eight men who claim the Rev. Donald Durand molested them in the 1970s and 1980s reached confidential settlements with the Portland Archdiocese on Wednesday morning. The surprise agreements came a day after three of the plaintiffs testified during a series of mini-trials in U.S. District Court in Portland. One man testified that Durand sexually abused him in a cabin near Detroit Lake in the early 1980s. Two former students at St. Francis of Assisi School said Durand punished them by ordering them to wrestle naked in the rectory basement. Durand taught at St. Francis from 1970 to 1983. He was pastor at St. Clare in Southwest Portland from 1992 until he retired in 2001. A videotape of him denying molesting children was played in court. The settlements leave eight additional cases against the archdiocese unresolved. Five of those involve plaintiffs who are representing themselves, three of whom are in prison. Those cases are scheduled to go to trial next week. Two other sex-abuse plaintiffs with attorneys are scheduled for trial Monday and Tuesday. A case against the archdiocese unrelated to the sex abuse claims is scheduled for trial today. The settlements followed a day of testimony before two juries. It was the first time that a priest sex-abuse case went before a jury in Oregon. U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones is overseeing the mini-trials, which are advisory and are designed to help estimate the value of the claims to determine if the Portland Archdiocese's $75 million bankruptcy plan has enough money set aside for unsettled claims. Before the Durand settlements, more than 140 plaintiffs settled for more than $40 million as part of a bankruptcy-ordered mediation. The plan is expected to be approved in April.
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