HONOLULU (HI)
Honoluly Advertiser
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
Attorneys are expected to return to court today in an effort to settle a sexual abuse lawsuit against the former pastor of a Lahaina church.
The lawsuit was filed in May 2003 by Eugene Saulibio against the Rev. Joseph Bukoski III, Catholic social worker Sister Claudia Wong and The Fathers of The Sacred Hearts. The suit alleges that Bukoski sexually assaulted Saulibio in 1976 when the then-15-year-old was a student at Saint Louis School and Bukoski was a priest at The Fathers of the Sacred Hearts in Kane'ohe.
Jury selection was set to begin yesterday morning in Circuit Judge Bert Ayabe's courtroom. But prospective jurors were sent home and the lawyers for the parties spent most of the day negotiating in Ayabe's chambers.
At about 4:30 p.m., the attorneys left, but said they would return at 9:30 this morning to resume talks. They declined further comment.