BishopAccountability.org
	Church Blocks Production of Documents, Hearing August 14th. Crime Victims on Sidewalk outside Cathedral. Haven't We Done This Before? By Kay Ebeling City of Angels July 26, 2007 http://cityofangels3.blogspot.com/2007/07/church-blocks-production-of-documents.html Dejà vu all over again. There was a demonstration today in front of the "cathedral" in LA and a handful of pedophile priest crime victims made demands of Cardinal Mahony. Weren't these same people standing in this same place two years ago, three years ago, last year? Weren't the settlements supposed to be a sign of change? Now here are many of the same demonstrators as the last five years, standing on the sidewalk in front of the cathedral making demands of the Cardinal who's nowhere to be seen or heard. July 16th there was a media event disguised as a hearing in LA Superior Court. The LA Clergy Cases, estimated in 2004 to be worth 1.4 billion dollars, settled for 660 million and plaintiffs assured themselves it wasn't about money in the first place. Plaintiffs agreed to settle after the church said it would turn over documents about their perpetrators for review. Now days after the settlement Church Attorneys are already objecting to production of documents over and over again. Indeed, hours after the settlement hearing, church attorneys filed objections to production of documents on several predator priests. Document diving today I discovered from July 20th: "The subpoenaed entities will not produce these records without a court order," writes Plaintiff Attorney Katherine Freberg. For me it's like the settlements didn't really happen, but now the jury trials aren't happening either. Even access to documents was denied the first hour I was downtown trying to go document diving today. Only after I went into the Public Information Office and raised hell did the clergy case documents suddenly appear on the screens again. (This after a guy from "tech" assured me he'd look into the problem, just like the five other people from Tech I've talked to in the last two months. Remember the documents started disappearing from public access in late May, just after Mahony got his first subpoena to testify.) In a hearing August 14th, Church attorneys will object to production of records on Donald Patrick Roemer, Stephen Michael Baker, Michael Wempe, Juan Francisco Sanchez, and several other priests. They claim protections that Judge Haley Fromholz has already ruled inadmissible. More after this: Instead of appealing Fromholz' decisions, Church attorneys just keep filing motions making the same arguments over and over again. Katherine Freberg's office writes: "On July 5, 2007, Father Sanchez through his attorneys of record objected to the discovery of records completely on the basis that the subpoenas are invalid because they are not accompanied by an affidavit showing good cause. "The Court rejected this argument in September 2006 re Michael Wempe. "Guzin and Steier didn't appeal the September decision, they just keep filing more motions raising the same argument — "ignoring the law and the court's orders." Who cares if the judge already denied this motion, if we file it 100 times, we can really wear down both plaintiff attorneys and the entire Los Angeles Superior Court civil justice system. Apparently that's what LA Archdiocese managed to do. With the settlements plaintiffs now have enough money to maybe buy a condo and get some dental work done. How this makes up for their lifetimes of PTSD laden lives, I don't even know. Even Mahony said he wished he could give them back the years of their lives that they lost due to these crimes. Well how about giving each of them a piece of real estate, give up something the church really need. Suffer a little. Do some penance. Turn over some of the empty seminaries in the canyons around Los Angeles to be made into recovery and rehabilitation centers for all victims of pedophilia. Start taking responsibility. The church spins an international reputation of itself as generous and supportive to the plaintiffs. Now the church is already ignoring its agreement to release records, and the same church attorneys who prevented as many pretrial depositions of defendants as they could, especially church attorney Donald Steier, are right back in court arguing against release of the records. Hearing August 14th on enforcement of subpoenas and production of documents on priests. It's deja vu over and over and over and over and over.... From LA Superior Court website: 08/14/2007 at 08:31 am in department 20 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 Motion (TO ENFORCE SUBPOENAS(PAPERS FILED ON 7/20)RE: BC307685, BC307408, BC307222BC307920, BC308418 AND BC307919) 08/14/2007 at 08:31 am in department 20 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 Motion (TO MAINTAIN DOCUMENTS UNDER SEAL(PAPERS FILED ON 6/08) C/F 7/17 RE: BC307225) 08/14/2007 at 08:31 am in department 20 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 Motion (TO MAINTAIN DOCUMENTS UNDER SEAL(PAPERS FILED ON 6/12) C/F 7/17RE: BC307410) Meanwhile I have to go back to work on American Gangster for Court TV, although I really don't see a whole lot of difference between that job and this one today. One last note: Quote from a retired pedophile priest crime victim advocate, upon hearing about the death of Santa Barbara area Jesuit David Schwartz last month: "He's buried at the Jesuit center in Los Gatos where the kitchen workers were sodomized by other Jesuits"
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