[See also other articles by Gustavo Arellano.]

For the past three years, employees for the Catholic Diocese of Orange have made our list of Orange County's Scariest People. In 2004, it was Bishop Tod D. Brown; 2005 included former diocesan spokesman Joseph Fenton, while last year's edition featured statutory rapist Jeff Andrade. Our Scariest People issue doesn't publish until later this month, but we can reveal the latest diocesan person to make the list: lawyer Peter Callahan.

Rather than list all the man's sins today, we'll just state one and leave the rest for our Scariest Issue. Today, after a judge ruled against the diocese today, Callahan and others staged a press conference. At the press conference was Sarah Gray, whom won a settlement from the diocese for her abuse at the hands of a former Mater Dei choir director. After Callahan asserted that Mater Dei officials properly handled all sex-abuse allegations for which the diocese was being sued (a claim we went over yesterday), Gray spoke up.

She told Callahan and a bevy of reporters that no such thing occurred when her parents asked Mater Dei officials to report her abuser (former choir director Larry Stukenholtz) to the proper authorities after they let him go in the late 1990s. Callahan didn't miss a beat.

E-mail: GARELLANO@OCWEEKLY.COM