PORTLAND (OR)
Courthouse News [Pasadena CA]
October 3, 2024
By Monique Merrill
Two Catholic institutions say the child sex abuse accusations levied against a visiting priest cannot be tied back to the churches.
Eugene OR – A federal judge in Oregon is tasked with determining to what extent two Catholic organizations are responsible for the sexual abuse a priest is accused of having committed against a minor in the church.
U.S. District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai must decide if the Archdiocese of Portland and the Priests of the Sacred Heart have vicarious liability for the sexual abuse a plaintiff identified by the pseudonym John Doe accuses Father Bryan Benoit of committing against him in 1998 and 1999, or if the matter is best determined by a jury.
Doe claims Benoit, a visiting priest at the Holy Redeemer Church in North Bend, Oregon, during that time, sent sexually explicit emails from his personal Hotmail account that escalated into physical sexual abuse. Because Benoit was ordained and employed by Priests of the Sacred Heart while visiting the North Bend church, which the Archdiocese of Portland controls, Doe argues that both religious institutions carry vicarious liability for the crimes.
In an oral argument on the parties’ motions for summary judgment on Thursday, counsel for the Archdiocese of Portland argued that the church doesn’t bear responsibility for Benoit’s actions because he did not commit them while performing in the scope of his duties to the church.
“What you need to show is that the abuse was the direct outgrowth of conduct the abuser took within the scope of his employment,” attorney Audrey Davis said.
Max Halpern, representing Doe, said Benoit’s email correspondence with Doe fell under the scope of the priest’s duties. “Father Benoit testified the emails were confidential because it was priest-parishioner counsel,” Halpern told the court.
The Archdiocese of Portland disagreed and argued that at that time, when email was a relatively new form of communication, there would not be a reason nor expectation for priests to form relationships that way.
Kasubhai asked if the church had any policies concerning the use of personal emails.
“No policy that I know of — keep in mind this was 1998,” Davis said.
To that, Kasubhai questioned if the use of a personal email account was even unusual, particularly given that it’s unknown whether the church had an email of its own at that time. He compared sending an email from a personal account to sending a letter on a plain sheet of paper without letterhead indicating it was sent through an institution.
Davis suggested a more apt comparison would be sending a letter with a personal return address versus a church return address. She pointed to Benoit’s other actions, such as giving Doe a gift, as bolstering the church’s position that his behavior exceeded the scope of his position.
“There’s no other evidence that Benoit or any other priests were giving gifts to minor children and it being a part of their duties,” Davis said.
An attorney for Priests of the Sacred Heart Lori DeDobbelaere sought to put distance between Benoit and the Priests of the Sacred Heart during his time in Oregon. She said that while Benoit was a member of the church, he was on a leave of absence when the accused crimes occurred.
“The community in this case is Holy Redeemer,” DeDobbelaere said. “Not Priests of the Sacred Heart parish.”
In the late 1990s, after completing a stint in a Los Angeles rehab facility for alcohol use disorder, Benoit traveled to help operate a new sober living facility opening in Coos Bay, Oregon, at the suggestion of a doctor he met while in recovery, DeDobbelaere explained. It was in Coos Bay that he encountered a leader at Holy Redeemer and asked if he could help out at the church.
“It wasn’t Priests of Sacred Heart sending him there,” DeDobbelaere said.
She argued that to the extend it could be claimed Benoit was acting to the benefit of his employer, that employer was not Priests of the Sacred Heart, despite Benoit receiving a small stipend from that church.
“He wasn’t hired to send minors emails, in fact that wasn’t appropriate,” she said.
While still maintaining his status as a Father within the church, DeDobbelaere said Benoit has been relocated to a facility in St. Louis after the accusations came to light.
“Basically, for lack of a better term, and for ease of understanding, he’s on church house arrest,” DeDobbelaere said, adding that his movement is chaperoned and monitored.
Kasubhai said he would issue his findings and recommendations shortly.