CALIFORNIA
Santa Cruz Sentinel
[with documents]
By JULIA REYNOLDS
Herald Staff Writer
montereyherald.com
Posted: 03/28/2012
A former Palma High School student filed a lawsuit Wednesday accusing the Rev. Gerald Funcheon, a former Palma teacher, of molesting him on a school trip in the 1980s.
Meanwhile, in another court case, copies of letters from and about Funcheon indicate a long history of suspicions about the Catholic priest, who taught at the Salinas school during the 1984-85 school year.
Named in the new lawsuit, filed in a Minnesota court, are Palma High School, Funcheon and the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross, a Catholic order also known as the Crosiers, which at the time had headquarters in Minnesota. Funcheon was a member of the order, which is not affiliated with Palma.
The complaint alleges that Chris Spedden, now in his early 40s and living out of the area, was 13 when he was molested while on a ski trip to Bend, Ore., a trip chaperoned by Funcheon.
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