By Kay Ebeling
City of Angels
May 14, 2008
http://cityofangels4.blogspot.com/2008/05/salesians-admit-today-fr-titian-miani.html
The Salesians admit these plaintiffs have been abused by Father Miani. Ray Boucher spoke to jurors this morning. The lead plaintiff attorney said settlement talks began during jury selection and the jurors' presence, ready to hear the case after four days of voir dire, urged the settlement forward. Having the Salesians admit Father Miani raped these four persons as children and likely others will have an impact on the plaintiffs lives forever, Boucher said, thanking jurors as the 17 cases settled this morning for $19.4 million dollars.
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Wayne Mason, who flies in from Texas to litigate for the Salesian Religious Order was tearful, saying, the conduct of this particular priest was something awful the men of the Salesians Society were ashamed of. He turned to the plaintiffs and said, Im sorry, with sadness. Morse added there are so many men in the Salesians who are not like Miani.
The "mansion" in San Francisco, the Salesian Provincial House, will be sold to cover part of the cost of the settlement.
Lead plaintiff witness Lester Howse, came all the way from Winnipeg on the east coast of Canada to LA Superior Court this morning, determined to testify about his knowledge of Miani molesting a boy in 1957. What Lester Howse would have said on the stand, he said to my camera, and the video will be up at City of Angels Network as soon as it processes through YouTube, stay tuned.
The number of witnesses, the amount of evidence, plus the presence of a jury ready after four days of voir dire undoubtedly pressured the Salesians to settle these remaining cases. The same team of attorneys here to defend the Salesians in LA are still fighting plaintiffs in San Francisco, continuing to appeal and delay a settlement that was ordered by a jury to Joey Piscitelli in 2006.
What Ray Boucher was going to say in opening statements was point out the 1948 letter from Italy which would have been a key piece of evidence in the trial. The letter proves the Salesians Society knew of Miani's proclivities before sending him to North America in the late 1940s.
The 1948 letter will be attached as evidence in the case files, which City of Angels will dive in and start perusing over the next weeks.
The Salesians were aware of at least one molestation by Miani as far back as 1948, Boucher said.
He had more witnesses ready to come down from Canada to testify about Father Jim at St. Marys School in Edmonton, the number of witnesses who would come depended on how long the trial went on, Boucher said after the hearing, implying the list of witnesses would have gone on and on.
The Salesians are admitting they need to bring about change, said Boucher.
This mornings actions end the global settlement, the 500 plus cases that came about after a window of opportunity opened in 2003. For that one year the state suspended the statute of limitations on child sex crimes, and persons in the state of California who had been raped at any time as children could file civil lawsuits, no matter how far in the past the episodes took place.
The 17 cases that settled this morning are the last of the cases from Los Angeles that resulted from the 2003 window in the statute of limitations in California.
However, several lawyers from Kiesel Boucher Larson said there are more clients coming forward, more cases against the LA Archdiocese coming.
The state of Pennsylvania is currently hearing and considering the Child Victim Act, HB 1137, which will open a similar window for two years for persons raped as children, and permanently put the window for reporting abuse at the age of 50. We'll be reporting more about HB 1137 in Pennsylvania shortly here at City of Angels.
I was saving that picture above of Leila Nourani for the trial. She was one of the defense attorneys who fascinated me, and I was so looking forward to drawing her and Helen and Cheryl, but I really don't have the wardrobe to cover a jury trial. Also I have these two other jobs that pay the bills and they were going to have to go on the back burner.
Don't worry. Now that the Salesians have settled I will be able to access all the documents, even the ones squirreled away by the "research attorney" during most of the pretrial months. All the documents from the Salesians cases will be there in the 6th and Commonwealth courthouse on the 14th floor under the care of Javier.
Will be document diving by next week about Miani and all the rest of them. For now have to go back to work on raw videos for America's Greatest Dog, another brain challenging reality TV show in development here in East Hollywood.
Putting in time codes when they bark...
Onward. . .
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