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	Sonoma CO.: Diocese Settles Priest's Sexual Abuse Civil Suit for $5 Million CBS5 September 12, 2007 http://cbs5.com/localwire/localfsnews/bcn/2007/09/12/n/HeadlineNews/ABUSE-SETTLEMENT/resources_bcn_html The Santa Rosa Roman Catholic Diocese has agreed to a $5 million settlement of a lawsuit alleging former priest Francisco Xavier Ochoa sexually abused 10 underage parishioners since 1984. Dan Galvin, attorney for the Diocese, said the settlement was reached Aug. 27. He said Bishop Daniel Walsh will personally contribute $20,000 in stipends he has earned for his services at weddings and funerals toward the settlement. The settlement means the Diocese has paid nearly $25 million to settle civil suits alleging sexual abuse by 17 priests during the past 40 years. Galvin said this morning the Diocese "made a good faith effort to settle the suit early on" so as much money as possible would go to the victims. "Every dime in the insurance policy that was to be spent in defense of the suit would have come out of what would have been for the victims," he said. The suit was filed in October 2006, five months after Ochoa, 69, former assistant pastor of St. Francis Solano Parish in Sonoma, is believed to have fled to Mexico. He admitted some of the sexual impropriety to Bishop Daniel Walsh and other priests in April 2006. Walsh admitted wrongdoing and completed a five-month counseling diversion program rather than face criminal charges for failing to timely report to authorities Ochoa's sexual misconduct with an underage boy in his parish in April 2006. It was alleged Ochoa kissed the boy on the lips before the boy strip-teased in his apartment after a Sunday mass in April 2006. Galvin said Walsh is attending a meeting this week of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C. The Sonoma County District Attorney's Office filed a 10-count felony criminal complaint against Ochoa in June 2006 alleging he committed lewd acts with three underage boys between 1988 and 2006. There is still a warrant for his arrest. The civil suit alleged Ochoa's sexual abuse began in 1984 and continued until April 2006. One of the victims was 5 years old when the abuse began, according to the suit, and Ochoa befriended some of the victims in Chihuahua, Mexico. The victims later moved to the Santa Rosa area.
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