By Tammy J. McCoy
The Press-Enterprise
April 4, 2008
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_appeal05.41eb983.html
A Murrieta man accused of child molestation is asking an appellate court to overturn a judge's ruling that ordered leaders of a Jehovah's Witnesses congregation to testify about admissions he reportedly made to them.
The petition comes after last week's ruling by Riverside County Superior Court Judge F. Paul Dickerson ordering two congregation elders to testify during Gilbert Simental's trial on child molestation charges.
Simental's attorney, Miles Clark, said he believes the 4th District Court of Appeal needs to hear the case and rule on these important issues.
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Prosecutor Burke Strunsky declined to comment.
A jury is being selected in Simental's trial at the Southwest Justice Center in French Valley.
The 49-year-old is charged with molesting two of his daughter's friends when they came to his home for sleepovers between July 2005 and July 2006, according to court papers.
The girls are sisters and were ages 9 and 10 at the time, the records show.
The Press-Enterprise does not publish the names of those who are believed to have been victims of sexual abuse.
The petition on Simental's behalf asks the appellate court to stop the criminal trial until the appeals court issues a ruling.
Among the issues raised in the petition is whether the legal privilege making confidential a person's statements to a member of the clergy actually discriminates against the Jehovah's Witnesses' practices.
State law says a penitential communication is one made in confidence, and "in the presence of no third person."
"In requiring 'the presence of no third person,' it would appear that the state is depriving Elders of the Church and its lay members the right to assert the privilege of confidentially afforded to congregants and clergy in other religious traditions involving one-on-one confessions or counseling with clergy," according to court papers filed Thursday.
Simental's statements to a judicial committee of elders should be treated the same way as statements a Roman Catholic makes to a priest during the practice of confession, attorney Clark has argued in Superior Court.
Simental's conversations with Elders Andrew Sinay and John Vaughn were confidential and made during the meeting of a church judicial committee formed in response to allegations of child sex abuse, Clark has said.
In last week's ruling in Superior Court, Judge Dickerson said having three elders involved made this judicial committee a fact-finding body not concerned with maintaining confidentiality.
A judicial committee was akin to an investigation into immoral conduct, not a religious practice in which Simental went to the elders seeking forgiveness or spiritual guidance, Dickerson said.
In his decision, Dickerson noted that Sinay and Vaughn met with the parents of the two girls who allege they were molested by Simental.
Sinay later told the girls' parents that Simental confessed to them, both parents testified.
Sinay denied telling anyone about Simental's statements to him when he testified last week in court.
Sinay testified that everything he hears during the course of the judicial committee is confidential and members of his congregation rely on that.
If he failed to respect their confidences, Sinay said he would become an ineffective spiritual leader.
If convicted of all charges, Simental faces 45 years to life in prison. He is free on $1 million bail.
Jury selection in Simental's trial is expected to resume Monday.
Staff writer Richard K. De Atley contributed to this report.
Reach Tammy J. McCoy at 951-375-3729 or tmccoy@PE.com
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