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	Plaintiffs Say Jesuits to Settle Sex Claims for $50 Million By Mary Beth Smetzer Fairbanks Daily News-Miner November 19, 2007 http://newsminer.com/2007/11/19/9998 A $50 million agreement to settle 110 claims of clerical sexual abuse filed by Alaska Natives against the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus has been reached, the attorney for the plaintiffs said Sunday. The Jesuits took issue with the statement by Anchorage attorney Ken Roosa, however, and issued their own statement. "While the Jesuits have been dedicated to finding a just and timely solution to these cases, it is my understanding that there are still many issues that need to be finalized before it is appropriate to make an official announcement about a settlement," the Rev. John Whitney, Oregon Province provincial, said in the statement. "When those issues are resolved, we will be available for a more complete discussion of the matter." If the settlement moves forward, it would be the largest single settlement against a Catholic religious order. It does not include the approximately 135 child sex abuse claims still standing against the Fairbanks Catholic Diocese, which owned and managed the churches in the villages where Jesuit priests and volunteers were assigned. For the past seven months, attorneys for the claimants and the Jesuits have been working on a mediated settlement. Whitney said the Oregon Province is "disappointed" that the plaintiffs' attorneys issued a news release earlier in the day saying a settlement had been reached. He called the action "premature and detrimental to the work of healing about which we are all concerned." In an e-mail received Friday from the Jesuits' lead counsel, Richard K. Hansen of Portland, and released by Roosa Sunday, Hansen wrote, "This e-mail will confirm that a settlement has been reached. … The settlement calls for $50,000,000 to be paid to plaintiffs/claimants in exchange for releases of all claims against Jesuit defendants …" In the same e-mail, Hansen requested that a motion filed by Roosa to enforce a settlement be removed from the court's docket. That motion was filed by Roosa's law firm Tuesday after an earlier settlement agreement was not acknowledged by the Jesuits. "Why would Hansen ask me to take the motion off-docket if he didn't believe we received a settlement as well?" Roosa said in a telephone interview Sunday. "There are details that are always worked out after a settlement has been reached. I have notified clients that we have a settlement." Roosa said for his clients the settlement is an acknowledgment of the truth — "their truth, their reality, their life." Roosa and California attorney John Manly issued a joint statement later Sunday, calling the Jesuits' denial of a settlement "baffling, sad and hurtful to the victims of predator priests in Alaska, especially since the Society's own lawyer concedes that the Jesuit leadership agreed to the settlement. Now it seems that the Jesuits want to use silence and denial to allow time to spin the agreement as their move towards justice and healing." Litigation in the numerous lawsuits began five years ago and mushroomed over the years as claimants stepped forward. Roosa and Manly called the process a painful revictimization of the survivors, adding that the protracted "hardball litigation" has cost the victims and their attorneys millions of dollars. Contact staff writer Mary Beth Smetzer at 459-7546 or msmetzer%40newsminer.com.
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