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	Vermont Judge Pushes Mediation By Sam Hemingway Burlington Free Press August 6, 2009 http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20090806/NEWS02/908060308/Vermont-judge-pushes-mediation Judge Helen Toor said Wednesday that she will push to have longstanding cases involving alleged priest sexual abuse and malpractice by a Burlington eye doctor resolved during her stint as presiding judge at Chittenden Superior Court. Toor, in back-to-back hearings Wednesday in Burlington with lawyers connected with the cases, signaled she wants some or all of the pending cases in the two matters to undergo mediation in the near future with the goal of reaching out-of-court settlements. "Other than mediation, I don't know how we're going to get these cases tried before we're all retired," Toor told lawyers representing the state's Roman Catholic diocese and the alleged victims of the priest sexual abuse. Toor, who becomes the presiding judge at the Burlington court Sept. 1, said she was concerned about how many cases involving the two matters are pending and about how long some of them have been on the docket. Twenty-four priest sexual abuse cases are pending at the court, the oldest of which was filed in 2005. Another 13 cases are pending against Burlington ophthalmologist David Chase. The oldest Chase case on file dates to 2003. Attorney John Monahan, Chase's lawyer, told Toor he was open to the mediation approach. He said Chase had been opposed to the idea in the past, but changed his stance this year after the jury in the first of the malpractice cases to go to trial cleared him of a claim brought by a former patient. "Since the trial there has been a change in attitude," Monahan said. "There have been discussions about the possibility of settling and discussions about the possibility of trying to use some type of collective mediation." Chase, who is retired, was accused of performing unnecessary cataract surgeries on a number of patients. A jury found him not guilty of federal fraud charges in 2005; the state Medical Practice Board decreed in 2008 that Chase had engaged in unprofessional conduct with 10 patients. Toor told Monahan and lawyers Mary Kirkpatrick and Jacob Perkinson, who represent former Chase patients, she will hold off scheduling trials for any of the pending Chase civil lawsuits until all of them have gone through the mediation process. "My thought is that mediation should occur by the end of October," Toor said. Resolving the two-dozen remaining priest sexual abuse cases quickly could prove more problematic, lawyers for the diocese and the alleged victims told Toor. John Evers, an attorney for the alleged victims, said the two sides participated in a "global mediation session" in November but that disputes arose during the process and the discussions were abruptly suspended. "We don't see this as a useful expenditure of our time, but if you tell us to do it, we will go do it," Evers said. Kaveh Shahi, a diocesan lawyer, said the diocese was willing to try mediation again, but said the different circumstances of each alleged victim can make reaching decisions on settlement amounts difficult. Toor told the lawyers she plans to order mediation for three of the pending cases, one of which is tentatively scheduled for trial in late September. The judge also tentatively rejected a diocese motion to delay that upcoming trial until the Vermont Supreme Court has ruled on the church's request to throw out two multimillion dollar punitive damage awards won by former altar boys following jury trials in 2008. "How many times must a defendant be subjected to punitive damages for the same set of decisions made 35 years ago by a bishop who has been dead for 15 years?" diocesan attorney Tom McCormick said, summarizing the question before the high court. Evers told Toor there is no timetable for when the Vermont Supreme Court will issue a decision and that it did not make sense to hold off on litigating other priest sexual abuse cases in the meantime. "Given the number of cases we have, we need to move forward," Evers said. Toor appeared to agree. "These cases are already old," she said. "I'm very uncomfortable they're pending at all." Contact Sam Hemingway at 660-1850 or e-mail at hemingway@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.comTo get Free Press headlines delivered free to your e-mail, sign up at www.burlingtonfreepress.com/newsletters.
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