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  Second Woman Says Priest Molested Her
Testimony against Santa Rosa Cleric

San Francisco Chronicle
November 14, 2000

A second woman testified yesterday against a Santa Rosa priest, saying that he began sexually molesting her when she was 11 years old.

The woman, now 32, accused the Rev. Donald Kimball, an inactive Catholic priest and former youth minister in the Santa Rosa diocese, of sexually assaulting her in a church rectory when she was 13.

Sonoma County Judge Patricia Gray is hearing testimony to determine whether Kimball should stand trial on criminal charges of sexual assault and rape involving two Santa Rosa girls in the 1970s and '80s.

Kimball, 57, has pleaded not guilty.

Last week, another Santa Rosa woman testified that the priest raped her when she was 14 years old.

The second woman, whose full name was withheld for reasons of privacy, testified yesterday that she met Kimball when he became a parish priest at Resurrection Church in Santa Rosa.

She said that Kimball had served as her mentor. She also said the priest had touched her breasts at least twice when she was 11 and 12 years old and also had taken her skinny-dipping in the Russian River.

The woman described one incident in 1982 when she was 13. She testified that she approached Kimball for counseling because a boy was pressing her for sex. She said the priest drove her to his residence at St. John's Rectory in Healdsburg.

"He invited me to go onto the bed with him," she testified. "He got naked and invited me to be naked. He asked me whether I knew what was pleasing to a man and whether I wanted to try some of these things."

The priest asked her about her own sexual experiences, the woman testified, before he touched her breasts and vagina.

During cross-examination, defense attorney Chris Andrian tried to undercut the woman's credibility in part by focusing on her memory loss from a motorcycle accident she had when she was 18. He also pointed out that in 1990, when she was 22, she went to Kimball for counseling on a relationship problem.

Earlier in the day, Andrian resumed his cross-examination of a 37-year-old Santa Rosa woman who testified last week that Kimball had raped her in a chapel when she was 14.

He focused on the woman's spotty recollection of details of the alleged incident and the differences in two of her signed statements that were made seven months apart.

Responding to his questions, the woman described how she and Kimball had sexual intercourse on approximately 10 occasions in the months following the alleged rape. She also testified that the priest had arranged an abortion for her in San Francisco when she was still 14.

"I had become pregnant, and Don took me for an abortion," she testified. "He took care of everything. I was frightened to be pregnant to begin with. I was scared to death. He was the grown-up in the situation, and I let him handle it."

 
 

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