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	Defendant Lies, Is Not Sanctioned By Joseph Serna Daily Pilot April 11, 2009 http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2009/04/10/topstory/dpt-summers041109.txt Local man accused of molestation lied about moving items from his house, but judge will take no action against him. A Costa Mesa man accused of molesting a boy in his Newport Beach church lied during his sworn deposition with lawyers, the judge in the case acknowledged Friday. The judge, however, told attorneys during the morning hearing that the defendant’s dishonesty wasn’t enough to merit sanctions against the man’s case in any future trial. The plaintiff’s attorney, Vince Finaldi, requested that video evidence showing Todd C. Summers removing items from his house a day before it was searched and nine hours before he testified be considered damning evidence for Summers’ case. In technical terms, Finaldi was motioning for a sanction against Summers, so that Finaldi could show the video during a future trial and tell jurors that whatever Summers was removing was incriminating evidence. The plaintiff, identified only as John Doe, filed a civil lawsuit in spring 2008 alleging that between 1990 to 1999, Summers molested him while he was a member of the Newport Beach Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Summers was an elder there, which is a term the church uses for regular members of the congregation. The plaintiff claims that the abuse started when he was 12 and continued until he was 18 and older. He alleges that Summers abused him in the church, in Summers’ home and in his Newport Beach video store, TCS Video.Summers is a videographer who, on his website, says his clients include the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, the Boy Scouts of America and the Boys and Girls Club of Southern California. Summers testified during deposition that he did not remove any unknown items from house, hours after the tape shows him doing so. Summers therefore lied during his deposition, and “the evidence is overwhelming on that point,” said Ronald L. Bauer, Orange County Superior Court judge. “The evidence suggests that nine hours later he should have had a better recollection, and probably did have a better recollection than what [he said] he did.” Finaldi and his client claim that Summers videotaped some of the sexual encounters and likely kept them in a video cabinet in his garage, then moved them. Summers’ attorney, Thomas Roll, maintains that his client was only moving tools from his other jobs. “Certainly if he was trying to hide something, he would have done it well before then,” Roll said. Bauer told Finaldi that he was reaching with his request for sanctions. “Given the other remedies that are available — impeach the witness at trial, cross examine — all are remedies that are more appropriate than what you seek here,” he told Finaldi.
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