BishopAccountability.org
	Settlement Reached in Third St. Francis Lawsuit Hartford Courant August 24, 2011 http://www.courant.com/health/connecticut/hc-st-francis-reardon-abuse-settlemen20110824,0,4349432.story A third lawsuit accusing St. Francis Hospital of liability for decades of sexual abuse committed by Dr. George Reardon has been resolved with a confidential settlement, according to a source familiar with the proceedings. With jury selection scheduled to begin Sept. 6, lawyers for the hospital and the victim, known as Christopher Roe 1, reached a settlement late last week. The amount of the settlement is confidential, but it is believed to be considerably less than the $2.75 million awarded last month by a jury in a separate St. Francis case. The Christopher Roe 1 case was selected for trial by hospital lawyers and was considered the weakest of the cases adjudicated so far. Early in the litigation, lawyers for Roe offered to settle the case for $375,000. The hospital Wednesday confirmed a settlement in the Reardon case but said that all parties had agreed not to provide details. "We remain committed to seeking similar fair and just resolutions for any remaining cases in a timely manner," the hospital said in its statement. "We believe this settlement is another step in that direction." Court records show that Roe was seen by Reardon about 20 times between 1988 and 1993, when Roe was 10 to 15 years old. In the initial complaint filed in early 2008, lawyers alleged that Reardon "engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with the plaintiff by taking him to his office at St. Francis Hospital, photographing him naked, physically manipulating the plaintiff's penis, forced the plaintiff to pose and remain in sexually suggestive positions and under threat of intimidation, forced him to remain naked for a prolonged period of time so Reardon could obtain sexual gratification." Under the guise of a long-running pediatric growth study, Reardon is believed to have abused as many as 500 children in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. Others were abused during routine medical visits. Victims suing St. Francis say the hospital was negligent in failing to monitor Reardon's alleged research. The hospital has said that blame for the abuse falls solely on Reardon, who duped both hospital administrators and parents. The Roe case was legally significant in that the abuse allegedly occurred after 1987, when the first complaints were made against Reardon to the state health department. St. Francis was notified of the complaints but did not take action against Reardon. Roe was one of four cases initially selected for trial among the many lawsuits spawned after thousands of pornographic images of children were discovered in 2007 behind a wall at Reardon's former home in West Hartford. Two of the cases were chosen by plaintiffs' attorneys and two by lawyers for the hospital, with each side picking cases they considered favorable to their legal positions. The first suit chosen by plaintiffs was brought by a man known as John Doe 2. It went to trial and was settled in May during jury deliberations, with a settlement of more than $17 million for 32 victims. The second plaintiffs' suit, brought by Tim Doe 1, resulted in the $2.75 million verdict. Roe was the first of the defense-selected cases to move forward. The case settled days before lawyers were to argue a motion that, if approved, would have barred St. Francis from re-litigating certain issues that were resolved in the Tim Doe 1 case, an outcome that could have weakened the hospital's legal position in the Roe lawsuit. At the same time, the hospital had filed a large number of motions seeking to bar certain witnesses from testifying at the Roe trial, arguing that their testimony was irrelevant to the facts alleged in that case. The fourth case, involving a victim known as Jane Roe 1, is scheduled to begin jury selection on Jan. 3. Jane Roe 1, now 32, saw Reardon twice a year from her birth until about age 13 for treatment of a medical condition, according to the lawsuit. During those office visits, the suit claims, Reardon "required the Plaintiff to lie flat on her back on an examining table and required her to spread her legs and took numerous pictures of her vaginal area."
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.