Attorneys Drop Request for Contempt Citation against Bishop Tod Brown, but Plaintiffs and Diocese Disagree on Why
California Catholic Daily
December 3, 2007
http://calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=27f1fcb9-7bee-41b6-9043-c01b1977f3d6
Plaintiffs' attorneys in several sex-abuse cases recently settled out of court by the Diocese of Orange have decided not to pursue a contempt-of-court citation against Bishop Tod Brown, but say the diocese coerced their decision.
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The lawsuits in question alleged that four women were sexually molested as students by two faculty members at Mater Dei High School, a teacher at Santa Margarita Catholic High School, and a choir director at St. Timothy and St. Edward's parishes.
Msgr. John Urell, former Orange diocesan chancellor under Bishop Norman McFarland, was deposed in July in one of the cases. He became so upset by questions about his handling of sex-abuse complaints as chancellor that he walked out of his unfinished deposition, crying. Later it was learned that Bishop Brown had agreed to send Urell to the Southdown Institute near Toronto, Canada, for treatment of an emotional condition.
In a Sept. 10 deposition, Brown said that he had decided to send Urell to Southdown at the suggestion of Urell's doctors and attorney. Brown said he did not know specifically what Urell was being treated for.
The diocese's lawyer, Peter M. Callahan, has said that even plaintiffs' lawyers agreed that, after Urell's breakdown in July, the deposition did not need to continue. Instead, they would rely on what Urell had said thus far and on four days of deposition he had given in an earlier lawsuit. "It was only when a plaintiff's lawyer learned that Monsignor Urell had gone to Canada for treatment that the priest suddenly became 'a critical witness,'" Callahan said in the November Orange County Catholic, the diocesan newspaper.
Plaintiffs' lawyers sought a contempt citation against Brown, alleging that he had sent Urell to Canada to keep him from testifying in the sex-abuse trial. In September, Brown testified that he had no idea Urell would be called as a witness in an upcoming trial.
Plaintiffs' attorneys had planned to question Urell because, as chancellor, he had handled abuse allegations, said the Nov. 29 Los Angeles Times. Callahan, however, said in the Orange County Catholic that Urell "had no legitimate involvement" in the Mater Dei case at all. In fact, said Callahan, as chancellor, Urell "had very little involvement in claims of wrongdoing involving lay personnel."
The diocese settled with the four alleged victims for $6.885 million. As part of the settlement, plaintiffs dropped efforts to obtain the contempt-of-court citation against Brown. Proceedings for the citation were to begin last month but had been postponed until Dec. 3.
Plaintiffs' lawyer John Manly, however, claims the diocese pressured his clients to drop the citation. "The diocese insisted that it be done this way or they would have refused to pay our clients," Manly told the Times. But Callahan said the court dropped the contempt case because "it was a totally malicious and non-meritorious claim." A statement by the diocese said "removal of the citation was not a prerequisite for settlement."
Manly's office replied, "This is simply untrue," the Times reported. "The victims wish to express shock and disbelief that Bishop Tod Brown… would attempt to mislead the public once again…"
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