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	3 Abused by Priests File Suits Claiming Illegal GOP Meeting By Ted Wendling Cleveland Plain Dealer April 1, 2006 http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf? /base/news/1143884319209190.xml&coll=2 Columbus - Victims of sexual abuse by priests have filed two lawsuits accusing Speaker Jon Husted and seven other House Republicans of holding an illegal meeting before a House committee passed a hotly contested sex-offender bill this week. In an ironic twist to a story that has made national headlines, one of the suits has been assigned to a Franklin County judge whom Husted and other GOP officials have sought to impeach for his sentencing of a child molester. The suit was filed Thursday in Columbus by Dan Frondorf and Christy Miller, members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests. It was assigned by blind draw to Judge John Connor, a Democrat. A second suit was filed by SNAP member Claudia Vercellotti in Toledo. Connor has been the target of withering criticism by Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly, who has called for the judge's impeachment. O'Reilly continued his crusade Thursday evening by inviting Ohio Sen. Steve Austria onto his show and asking the suburban Dayton Republican for "a personal favor" - that Austria "watch [the] back" of a woman in Columbus who is working to remove Connor from the bench. "Well, absolutely," Austria responded. Connor could not be reached, but Frondorf, who met with the judge, said it has been "very interesting to meet somebody who's been so prominently in the news." "The irony wasn't lost on the judge," Frondorf said. Frondorf hopes that Connor will remain on the case, and Husted is not asking the judge to recuse himself, said the speaker's chief of staff, Scott Borgemenke. However, Borgemenke said the allegation that Husted violated the state's open meetings law is false. In an attempt to avoid Frondorf and other SNAP activists who had massed inside the Statehouse, several Republicans on the Judiciary Committee ducked into a conference room, he said. But he said a majority of members were never in the room and they did not discuss the bill. "We watch that constantly," Borgemenke said. "We're very cognizant of the fact that we have to be careful as the majority." SNAP members are unhappy that the House removed a one-year "look-back" provision from the bill that would have allowed victims to file civil lawsuits for abuse that occurred up to 35 years ago. In doing so, the House insulated the Catholic Church from having to defend hundreds of lawsuits from boys and girls who were molested by Ohio priests, Frondorf said. But he said the lawsuits were about the process, not the vote. "It makes me angry because I'm a citizen and taxpayer, and there was a majority of those members behind closed doors, meeting and discussing something before the committee," he said. "By statute, that's supposed to be an open meeting, and I don't like the fact that they violated the law and then passed a version of the bill that I didn't like." To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: twendling@plaind.com, 1-800-228-8272
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