St. Pius Priest to Be Asked about Alleged Sexual Relationship with Teenager, Judge Rules

By Casey Toner
AL.com
March 20, 2015

http://www.al.com/news/mobile/index.ssf/2015/03/attorneys_in_st_pius_bullying_1.html

Attorneys that are suing St. Pius X School in a bullying case can depose a school priest who allegedly had a sexual relationship with a teenage boy 15 years ago, a judge ruled Friday.

Mobile County Circuit Court Judge Sarah H. Stewart said that plaintiff attorneys David Kennedy and Christine Hernandez will be allowed to ask Rev. Johnny Savoie, the school administrator, about the incident and the teenager as long as they identify the teenager by his initials in the deposition.

Furthermore, Stewart said that the deposition would not automatically fall under a confidential protection order. Attorneys for St. Pius would have to request such an order after the fact.

"It's relevant, it's discoverable," Stewart said, in a testy exchange with Finn Cox, an attorney representing St. Pius X School.

The plaintiff's lawyers subpoenaed Baldwin County District Attorney Hallie Dixon earlier this month in order to ask her questions about a report she received regarding the allegation made against Savoie.

Previously, Dixon said the subpoena was invalid because rules governing civil cases require plaintiffs to file a notice of their intent to question a non-party and then give other lawyers in the case 15 days to object.

In the lawsuit, one of four against the school, lawyers allege that school administrators turned a blind eye to severe bullying faced by the students. Attorneys have argued that the nine-year-old allegation against Savoie is relevant because he oversees the school administration at St. Pius.

Attorneys have tried to find out details about the allegation and what steps the church and law enforcement authorities took to investigate it.

Dixon has said - and Payne reiterated in his court filing - that the Archdiocese of Mobile disclosed the allegation shortly after receiving it in December 2013. Dixon has said that the allegation involved a teenager who was 16 at the time when the relationship was alleged to have begun. Since that is the age of consent in

Alabama, her office determined that no crime had been committed.

Savoie told his parish about the allegation in February last year and denied that it was true, according to court records. Those documents indicate that Savoie took and passed a lie detector test.

Previously, attorneys for the school claimed that Savoie should not have to answer additional questions about the matter. They argued that whatever additional information would arise from such questioning is not relevant to the current lawsuit and would not be allowed into evidence.

On Friday, Cox argued that just because Savoie told his parish about the allegations, it never made its way into the public arena until the plaintiff's attorneys forced the issue in court and in headlines.

But Kennedy maintained that knowing the full story of Savoie and the teenager is vital to their case.

"Whether or not the priest engaged in a multi-year affair with a teenage boy is pertinent to a lot of our questions," Kennedy said.

ctoner@al.com