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	Abuse Victims in Legal Battle The Associated Press, carried in Press-Citizen [Davenport IA] March 9, 2006 http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ article?AID=/20060309/NEWS01/603090316/1079 DAVENPORT -- Two men who have accused a former bishop of sex abuse asked a judge Wednesday to force the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport to turn over names of all priests accused of sexual misconduct and other related documents. Both victims have filed lawsuits accusing former Sioux City Bishop Lawrence Soens of sexual abuse during the 1960s when Soens was principal at Regina High School in Iowa City. Soens retired as bishop in 1998. The legal tussle for the diocese's list of 25 credibly accused priests, the victims who made the allegations, investigative reports and other related documents stems from more than a dozen lawsuits filed against the diocese and several of its priests in 2002. At the time, District Judge C.H. Pelton ordered the diocese to turn over the documents. The transfer never happened because the church agreed to settle 37 sex abuse claims for $9 million in November 2004. The lawsuits against Soens, one of just 13 bishops in the United States facing credible sexual misconduct allegations, were filed after the multimillion dollar settlement. Soens also has been named in seven claims that are being mediated out of court. A separate claim against Soens was settled by the Davenport Diocese for $20,000 in 2004. Each of the cases is similar with victims claiming they were abused while students at Regina, specifically after being summoned to the principal's office by Soens. In a hearing Wednesday, victim attorney Craig Levien said the documents are critical to one aspect of the case -- showing how the diocese failed to properly manage and discipline accused priests. Diocese attorney Rand Wanio said the church is willing to share the documents. The question facing Pelton is who should have access to them. Levien wants his trial witnesses and expert witnesses to review the files. Wanio wants access limited to attorneys and support staff. Broader access could infringe on privacy rights and expose priests who are falsely accused to negative publicity, he said. "We want to give it all over to him, but we think accused clerics also have rights," Wanio told the judge. "Otherwise, the identification of other clerics, who may have had just one allegation against them in their lives ... if those identities are allowed to be distributed widely, there is a good chance that material may be found on Web sites somewhere." Pelton did not indicate when he would issue a ruling. Soens has been accused of a wide variety of sexual misconduct while serving as the school's first principal from 1959 to 1967. A 2002 diocese report labeled confidential but recently added to the court file by Levien investigated accusations that Soens pinched students' testicles and more than once twisted students' nipples, a practice called "purpling." An investigative team determined that the behavior was inappropriate, but did not appear sexual in nature.
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