Jury Clears Fresno Catholic Diocese in Abuse Trial, KSEE, April 3, 2009

Jury Clears Fresno Catholic Diocese in Abuse Trial

KSEE
April 3, 2009

http://www.ksee24.com/news/local/42452762.html

[with video]

A Fresno jury on Friday found that two men suing the Fresno Catholic Diocese were abused by a priest, but that the Diocese did not know about the abuse when it was going on back in the 1950s and 1960s.

Brothers George and Howard Santillan were seeking millions in damages, claiming the church knew about what was going on, but did nothing about it. The men say they were abused by Monsignor Anthony Herdegen at a church in Wasco, abuse that started in the mid 1950s. Herdegen eventually resigned. The jury decided that the men had been abuses, but on a vote of 9-3, ruled that the church was not at fault for what happened.