Who's Who : the Key Figures in the Court Case Involving Father Edward Fitz-henry

By Mary Duan and Sara Rubin
Monterey County Weekly
September 12, 2013

http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/news/cover/article_3e1005a4-1b4e-11e3-b121-001a4bcf6878.html

Judge Thomas Wills ruled documents filed in the sex abuse case against Fr. Fitz-Henry will be sealed from the public pending his review. “I want to make sure these folks are protected,” he said of the family that complained of misconduct 20 years ago.

Monterey County Superior Court

“I’m not beholden to anyone. Some have suggested that at times I’m sort of tied into an old boys network on the bench. That’s not true. I’m not. I call it like I see it.”

– Wills, speaking to the Weekly editorial board in 2008, in his campaign for the bench.

Paul Gaspari

Defense Attorney for the Diocese of Monterey, San Francisco and Santa Rosa; law firm of Weintraub Tobin, San Francisco

“Our position is, this case is over and I don’t need to do anything.”

– Gaspari, arguing against the Weekly’s request for sealed documents and other material obtained during discovery in the case against Edward Fitz-Henry and the Diocese of Monterey, Sept. 10, 2013

Vince Finaldi

Plaintiff’s attorney for John R.J. Doe; law firm of Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, Irvine

“Those files show that they knew exactly who (Father Michael) Baker was and what he was doing.”

– Finaldi, in response to the 12,000 pages of documents that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles released earlier this year about how it handled allegations of sexual abuse by priests, including the accused priest Michael Baker. A settlement of nearly $10 million for four sex-abuse cases was agreed to by the L.A. Diocese.

Daniel De Vries

Defense Attorney for Father Edward Fitz-Henry; law firm of De Vries Law Group, San Juan Bautista

“I want to offer a different voice to this discussion, one that is more than overdue since we’ve been here. It’s to remind the court I represent an individual man, Father Edward Fitz-Henry… he’s not been found guilty of anything.”

– De Vries, in his comments to Judge Wills, Sept. 10, 2013

Roger Myers

Plaintiff Attorney for Monterey County Weekly; law firm of Bryan Cave, San Francisco

“The interests in confidentiality asserted by the Diocese and Fitz-Henry cannot outweigh the compelling, extraordinary, great, legitimate and important… public interest in accessibility to information about allegations of priest sexual abuse of minors and the Archdiocese’s response.”

– Myers, in his brief to the Monterey County court supporting the motion to unseal court and discovery documents, Sept. 10, 2013