By Annysa Johnson
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
July 15, 2011
http://www.jsonline.com/features/religion/125647573.html
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| Rembert Weakland |
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| Richard Sklba |
The judge in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy case on Friday rejected a move by lawyers for clergy sex abuse victims and other creditors to depose key witnesses, including retired Archbishop Rembert Weakland and Bishop Richard Sklba, in state court.
But Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley left the door open for those witnesses and others to be questioned under comparable federal bankruptcy rules.
"No disrespect to the state courts, but we're in bankruptcy court now," said Kelley, who challenged the creditors committee's standing to file the motion to lift the automatic stay triggered by the bankruptcy that has stalled depositions in the underlying fraud cases against the archdiocese.
Lawyers for the archdiocese and victims and creditors will return to Kelley's courtroom Aug. 12 to make their cases under the federal rules.
Creditors' attorneys argued Friday that depositions of elderly or infirm witnesses, including anyone over age 75, are needed to preserve evidence in the pending civil fraud cases against the archdiocese, which led the church to seek bankruptcy protection. That evidence would be beneficial to both sides, they said, in determining credibility of claims and the size of the bankruptcy estate and any settlement with creditors.
"If witnesses pass away, they take with them evidence of sexual abuse, and that information is critical to the claims process," creditors attorney Gillian Brown said.
Attorneys for the archdiocese argued that there's no evidence to suggest any of the witnesses are at risk of dying or that memories are fading, and that lifting the stay would violate a fundamental protection of the bankruptcy code.
"We might as well dismiss the bankruptcy and let Mr. Anderson litigate (in state court) to his heart's content," archdiocese attorney Frank LoCoco said - a reference to Jeff Anderson, the plaintiffs' lead attorney in the fraud cases against the church.
Kelley said it was likely Sklba would be deposed at some point in the bankruptcy proceedings, given the arguments she heard Friday.
Attorneys for victims have long sought to depose Sklba, who was described by Weakland in a 2008 deposition as part of a fraud lawsuit as his "go to" guy in the handling of clergy sex abuse cases.
They see the two bishops - who met with a Vatican official in 1998 to discuss Father Lawrence Murphy, who is thought to have abused as many as 200 deaf boys - as key to establishing Vatican culpability for the sex abuse crisis in the American church.
But all depositions in those fraud cases, except those of elderly and infirm witnesses, have been stalled for several years, first by appeals by the archdiocese's insurers and later by the automatic stay imposed when a debtor goes into bankruptcy.
Sklba, who turned 75 in September, had been scheduled to be deposed when the church filed for bankruptcy in January. His attorney had asked the court to block the deposition or seal his testimony, saying it could expose him to "unnecessary publicity, reputational harm and prejudice." But the deposition was put on hold by the bankruptcy.
Members of the advocacy group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, who attended Friday's hearing, gathered on the steps of the federal courthouse afterward to echo the creditors' call for depositions.
"Our concern is that the bankruptcy is being used as just another .?.?. mechanism to delay or avoid putting under oath former Bishops Weakland and Sklba," said Peter Isely, co-director of SNAPS Midwest chapter.
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