By Marianne Love
San Fernando Valley Sun
September 13, 2007
http://sanfernandosun.com/sanfernsun/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1624&Itemid=2
A pending lawsuit against a priest, accused of molesting a woman who once worked under Cardinal Roger Mahony at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church in SunValley, is expected to go before a Texas judge next spring.
Theresa Gomez of San Antonio, Texas is accusing Father Michael O'Brien, an ordained Catholic priest since 1973 and a member of the Missionaries of the Scared Heart order, of using his position as a priest to seduce her beginning July, 2001, according to the complaint filed with the District Court of Bexar County, Texas.
Irish Province of the Society of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, Patrick Flores, Archbishop of San Antonio and the Archdiocese of San Antonio are also named in the lawsuit.
O'Brien worked at the Sun Valley church from 1986 to 1989. It's unclear if another woman he admitted to having a sexual relationship with in Los Angeles attended Holy Rosary where 4,000 people attend today.
Attorneys are scheduled to argue O'Brien's status as a licensed counselor and its potential ramifications on Sept. 18.
Gomez's attorney, Robert Scamardo of Houston, Texas believes O'Brien is liable because he acted in a counseling capacity at the time of the alleged molestation.
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| Theresa Gomez, 55, of San Antonio, has alleged that a Catholic priest who worked under Cardinal Roger Mahony in the Los Angeles Archdiocese at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Sun Valley from 1986 to 1989 sexually molested her repeatedly in Texas. |
"His attorney is using every conceivable means to have the case dismissed," said Scamardo.
O'Brien's attorney, Thomas D. Jones of San Antonio, Texas did not return telephone calls seeking comment.
In the August 2004 complaint, Gomez claims she first met O'Brien in 1992 when her husband was dying of AIDS and several years later she sought out O'Brien's professional expertise in dealing with various issues including her husband's death, the premature death of an infant child, employment issues, completing her education and the challenges of raising four children as a widow.
Scamardo said over the past five to 10 years there has been much focus, and rightly so, centering on clergy sexual abuse of children, however, there are many women who have been exploited.
"I think there are huge numbers and cases that haven't seen the light of day.Women are feeling partly responsible and the law being very difficult to overcome in terms of seeing it as consensual," Scamardo said. "What's unique about hers is her history and vulnerability in which she approached this relationship. It's a tragic case. She was vulnerable as an adult and mother when she went to O'Brien for counseling.
"There are a large number of adults, not limited to women, who have been sexually exploited and have remained voiceless until today," Scamardo said. Gomez, now 55, is seeking an unspecified amount of damages for emotional distress, severe anxiety, her loss of faith and trust in the Catholic Church and pain and suffering. She is demanding a jury trial.
Attorney Ronald E. Mendoza, of San Antonio-based Davis, Cedillo & Mendoza Inc., represents the Archdiocese of San Antonio.
Mendoza said he doesn't believe any other charges have been filed against O'Brien elsewhere in the country.
He said a handful of cases have been filed against the San Antonio Archdiocese, but he didn't handle all of them.
"Of the ones I recall, more of the cases involve priests of religious orders as opposed to priests incardinated by the Diocese. In this case Father O'Brien wasn't assigned to the Archdiocese," Mendoza said.
Scamardo said O'Brien's attorney will argue Gomez was a consenting adult, a woman scorned and when O'Brien, who was ordained in 1969, didn't want to continue with the relationship, she filed a complaint.
"But it was Theresa who ended the relationship," he added.
As Gomez's relationship began to grow with O'Brien, she claims she also shared with him that she had been sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest in Maryland and her step-father.
"I was raped with the handle of a holy water sprinkler at age 13. My step father molested me for a year," Gomez said in a recent telephone conversation.
Late in 2000, O'Brien began making "romantic overtures toward" Gomez and these expressions of affections eventually escalated to physical contact of a sexual nature, including groping, fondling and passionate kissing, oral sex and intercourse, which first happened July 2001.
Gomez said she told Father Mike Horan, a personal family friend, and Horan kept silent.
The on-and-off sexual relationship continued through March 2003.
Gomez's said O'Brien used her lifelong membership and devotion to the Roman Catholic Church and her prior abuse at the hands of authority figures against her.
According to the lawsuit, Gomez reported O'Brien to his superiors and the Archdiocese, but no disciplinary action was taken. He was allowed to continue to work as a priest after having freely admitted to having violated his vow of celibacy on multiple occasions with Gomez.
"When I went to Cal Berkeley, he'd call, send gifts, cards and when I'd say these are inappropriate things, he'd go onto to say something else. I thought, 'Is it me?'" Gomez said.
O'Brien has also admitted to having had sexual relationships before Gomez with four other women, one of whom was from Los Angeles in 1993.
Scamardo said the judge ruled against releasing the women's names, saying it wasn't relevant.
"In the deposition, he claims there were four other women before Theresa who he had sexual relations with over a course of several years, two in South Africa, one in Los Angeles and one in Denver," Scamardo said.
When asked for comments about O'Brien and whether there were any charges filed against him in Los Angeles, Tod Tamberg, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, wrote in an e-mail:
"As you know, you can look it up yourself: www.la-clergycases.com. Click on the Report to the People of God (2004), and on the Addendum of names (2004) of accused. Also, click on Summaries of Clergy Files. If his name isn't there, there is not any accusation or a file. Honestly, how do you not know how to check this stuff?" Tamberg replied.
Gomez recounted a time when O'Brien came to her home for breakfast one Saturday morning.
"I have four sons, no one was home. He rubbed his hands from my waist to my thigh. I froze. It was like being a 12-year-old again. Then, he did it again," she said.
Gomez describes O'Brien as a liar and con man who thrived on oral sex.
"He always wanted oral sex. He didn't want to climax because that was a sin," she said. "He told me that our relationship was sacred as long as no one knows about it. And, when I told him I told friends, he said I betrayed him and it was one of the greatest betrayals of all and that our relationship was no longer sacred," Gomez said.
Gomez said O'Brien had all kinds of information about her past, that she was born out of wedlock, never knew her father.
"He started as a kind man, supportive and said he admired my strength, my ability to forgive and move on. He had all the stuff, knew I was vulnerable, had low esteem, was bad at setting boundaries, and he knew all of this because of his training," Gomez added. "I'm the last person he should have done this to."
Gomez, a substitute teacher, said one of the hardest part of bringing the accusations public, which she is glad she did, is its affect on her sons, ages 21 years old to 31 years old.
"It's been a struggle, a struggle between supporting me and blaming me. They ask, 'Couldn't I see it, didn't I know,'" she said. "It's still a very emotional issue, I feel bad I couldn't protect my kids from this kind of pain. They have lost the symbols and rituals that sustain them. One said even the mafia threats moms better. They are men and want to protect me.We are still working through it, but it will take a long time."
Gomez said O'Brien continues to work in San Antonio as a spiritual director at The University of the Incarnate Word, and that his punishment was to go to counseling and that didn't change even though he admitted there were four other victims.
Staff Reporter Marianne Love can be reached at (818) 365-3111, Ext. 152. Or, by e-mailing mlove@sanfernandosun.com.
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