O.C. Bishop Allegedly Abused Boy in Bakersfield, CBS 2, September 13, 2007

O.C. Bishop Allegedly Abused Boy in Bakersfield

CBS 2
September 13, 2007

http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_256142429.html

(CBS) Santa Ana, Calif. The bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange was accused of abusing a boy while serving as a priest in Bakersfield, according to a deposition given by the bishop and released Thursday.

The allegation was revealed in a deposition given Monday by Bishop Tod Brown in the case of a now 26-year-old woman who is suing the diocese claiming she was abused by Mater Dei High School assistant basketball coach Jeff Andrade.

The diocese asked to keep the deposition sealed, but Orange County Superior Court Judge Gail Andler Thursday ordered it to be made public.

The diocese asked to keep the deposition sealed, but an Orange County Superior Court judge ordered it to be made public.

In a statement released by the diocese, spokesman Bryan Lilyengren said the allegation was investigated by the diocese of Fresno and law enforcement, which both determined there was "no credible basis" to the claim.

Brown was deposed Monday by attorneys for the former student, who wanted to know what he knew about other sexual abuse complaints made against the diocese during the 10 or so years that Andrade worked at Mater Dei in Santa Ana as the assistant basketball coach and driving instructor.

In Andrade's deposition, he admitted to having sex with the student. He was fired in 1997. Police carried out an investigation that year but no charges were filed.

In another development, the woman's attorney, Venus Soltan, said John Urell, Brown's vicar general and "go to" man who handled sex abuse allegations in the diocese, has traveled to Canada, where he is being treated at a facility that other priests deemed to be pedophiles have been sent.

The diocese did not immediately comment on that claim.

Soltan said she will ask Orange County Superior Court Judge Gail Andler to allow her client to seek punitive damages against the diocese and to delay the trial briefly.

Soltan said that prior to giving the deposition, Brown did not disclose he had been accused of sex abuse, damaging his claim to church members that he would be "transparent" in all sex abuse allegations.

Under a $100-million settlement with about 90 molestation victims, the diocese agreed in 2004 to a policy of disclosure and transparency.

Mater Dei, one of the nation's largest parochial schools, has a reputation as an academic and athletic powerhouse, but it also has been plagued by sexual abuse allegations.

Nine men sued the diocese in 2003, alleging they were molested by Msgr. Michael A. Harris, a principal of the high school who left the priesthood in 2001 after the Los Angeles and Orange County dioceses paid a $5.2 million settlement to one of his victims.

Another lawsuit, filed that same year, alleged that pedophiles at Mater Dei preyed on students in the 1970s, the Los Angeles Times reported earlier this week.