GUAM
The Guam Daily Post
December 22, 2017
By Kevin Kerrigan
The number of sex abuse cases accusing former Guam priests of sexual abuse decades ago now total 147.
And there are more cases to come, said attorney Michael Patterson, who is representing the Archdiocese of Agana, in a hearing yesterday in the District Court. “There are a couple more to be added on here soon,” he said.
In reviewing the cases, Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood observed that there are now more abuse cases on Guam than there were in Hawaii, which has been dealing with a similar series of clergy abuse cases.
Currently, 103 of the Guam cases are in federal court before Tydingco-Gatewood. Superior Court Judge Michael Bordallo presides over 44 others. Tydingco-Gatewood said she’ll meet with Bordallo in January to work out procedures for handling the local and federal cases going forward.
In April 2016, nearly 150 victims of child sex abuse filed lawsuits against Hawaii’s Catholic Church and other local institutions in the past four years, hawaiinewsnow.com reported. This includes more than two dozen lawsuits that were filed within the last two weeks in April 2016, which was the deadline to sue, the news website reported.
The Guam sex abuse plaintiffs’ lawsuits collectively seek close to $500 million, Post files show.
In yesterday’s hearing, Tydingco-Gatewood expressed disappointment that the mediation protocols in the clergy sex abuse cases have not yet been completed.
As a result, the start of the mediation process has been pushed back to June, from March next year.
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