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	Shield on Priests" Files Sought By Sandi Dolbee Union-tribune September 17, 2008 http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080918-9999-1m18priest.html Attorney targeting personnel records One year after the San Diego Catholic diocese agreed to pay $198 million to settle more than 100 sexual abuse cases, an attorney will go to court today to try to block the release of personnel files of priests and others accused of wrongdoing. San Diego attorney Robert Jassoy is asking a Los Angeles judge for a two-month postponement so he can ask the state appeals court to rule on the legality of releasing previously confidential files. The postponement, Jassoy wrote in court papers filed on behalf of seven of the alleged abusers, “is necessary to prevent irreparable injury and protect the individuals' interests.” Attorneys and advocates for the 144 men and women who settled last September with the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego called the petition a stall tactic and suggested church officials are behind it. As part of the settlement, the diocese agreed to make the offenders' histories public. “They'll give in on money, but they are not going to give in on the documents,” said Barbara Dorris of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “When you release the documents, you find out just how much they knew and for how long.” The Associated Press recently reported that the Los Angeles archdiocese is paying for an attorney to represent priests trying to block the release of files there. The archdiocese's record $660 million settlement, reached two months before San Diego's agreement, also calls for making certain files public. Los Angeles attorney Anthony De Marco, who represents several of the people who say they were abused as minors, questioned whether the San Diego diocese is funding Jassoy's legal action. “Until someone can explain to me how Robert Jassoy is being paid for some fairly expert maneuvering, I'm going to have that suspicion,” De Marco said. Jassoy did not return phone calls yesterday. Maria Roberts, the San Diego diocese's in-house counsel, said questions about who is paying for Jassoy's work on this case would have to be answered by him. However, Roberts said Jassoy's actions are “being taken on behalf of his individual clients, not the Diocese of San Diego.” She also said the diocese has the personnel files ready to be produced as soon as directed. Of the seven clients Jassoy named in his request, six are or were priests, according to Rodrigo Valdivia, the diocese's chancellor. The seventh is a Catholic school teacher who continues in her job because “investigations by law enforcement and the diocese revealed that the single complaint made about (her) was neither credible nor substantiated,” he said. The diocese filed for bankruptcy protection in February 2007, just before the first lawsuit was due to begin trial. It reached a settlement seven months later, just before a judge was due to decide whether to dismiss the bankruptcy.
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