Dioceses settle sex suit

by CPiolo 3 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  CPiolo

  Dioceses settle sex suit

  Religion: O.C. man who alleged molestation by O.C. priest gets $5.2 million and the pledge of a new code of conduct.

  August 21, 2001

  By GREG HARDESTY,
  TIFFANY MONTGOMERY
  and JEFF COLLINS
  The Orange County Register

  Catholic Church leaders in Orange and Los Angeles counties have settled a lawsuit accusing a once-powerful priest of molestation, agreeing to pay $5.2 million and vowing to crack down on clergymen who prey on youngsters.

  A code of conduct, to be enforced by a judge, results from accusations that Monsignor Michael Harris, 56, molested a 17-year-old boy in 1991.

  Harris denies wrongdoing and never has been charged with a crime. However, he has agreed to leave the priesthood in the wake of the legal challenge.

  "I'm very happy with what we got accomplished," said Ryan DiMaria, now 28, who brought the suit. "I think it will protect a lot of victims in the future.''

  Harris, through his attorney, called DiMaria's accusations groundless, but declined to be interviewed.

  A former pillar of Orange County's Catholic community, Harris raised most of the money to open Santa Margarita Catholic High School in 1987 and was principal through 1994.

  The settlement in DiMaria's suit against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Diocese of Orange, recently reached in Orange County Superior Court but still being finalized, calls for a toll-free 800 number and Web site for reporting molestation, educational pamphlets to be distributed to Catholic churches and schools, and for priests to be required to sign agreements not to molest, among other things.

  DiMaria's attorney, Katherine Freberg, said the agreement is unprecedented, but church officials in both counties say they already have many of the policies in place.

  "What it (the settlement) really does is take the enforcement and trust out of the church's own institutions, which have failed miserably," said Jeffrey Anderson, a St. Paul, Minn., attorney who has handled molestation cases against the Catholic Church around the country.

  Tod D. Brown, bishop of the Diocese of Orange, said he is anguished at the allegations against Harris.

  He said the church acted properly in suspending Harris shortly after it received complaints about him.

  "Although Michael Harris continues to deny any wrongdoing, the Diocese of Orange has grave doubts about his innocence in these matters,'' Brown said.

  He apologized to DiMaria and others who have said Harris molested them as boys.

  "I personally express my profound sorrow for the suffering that (the victims) have described,'' Brown said.

  Insurance paid for $2 million of the $5.2 million settlement, and each diocese kicked in an additional $1.6 million, Brown said.

  The Catholic Church has been roundly criticized for failing to protecting its flock. In some dioceses, officials told pedophiles to "pray their way'' out of their illness.

  Some church officials said they could understand why a formal code of conduct would be needed.

  "We're all pretty conscious not to engage in any activity with minors without an adult present,'' said the Rev. Christian Mondor, parochial vicar at St. Simon and Jude Church in Huntington Beach.

  "I find it (the formal policies) very demeaning,'' he added, "but I understand why, with all the scandals that have occurred, priests have to do that."

  The accusations against Harris date back to the 1970s, when he became a priest.

  DiMaria, a former Santa Margarita High student, alleged in his lawsuit that the dioceses turned their backs on the predatory behavior of Harris, who allegedly targeted young males in need of spiritual counseling.

  DiMaria also sued Harris, and that case also was recently settled. Harris agreed to give up his collar. He said in a written statement issued by his attorney that he had done nothing wrong but couldn't afford to defend himself.

  "For over 25 years, Monsignor Harris has devoted his life to working with high school students,'' the statement from Harris' lawyer, Mike Trotter, said.

  Trotter called Harris a "scapegoat.''

  Harris lives in Oceanside and has been on inactive leave from the church since 1994. He plans to focus on his business of managing mobile-home parks for low-income families, according to Trotter.

  Orange County Judge James Gray, who oversaw the settlement, said it was important to go beyond a monetary award.

  "It seems to me there was a real opportunity to do something positive, and we tried to focus on that,'' Gray said. "I'm optimistic about this. We had highly placed officials in the church (involved), and they took it very seriously.''

  Gray said he would enforce the conduct code if either side comes to him alleging noncompliance - just as he does in other types of settlements.

  In addition to DiMaria, David A. Price, Vincent Colice and Mark Curran accused Harris of molesting them when he was principal of Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana in the 1970s and '80s.

  Price filed a civil lawsuit against Harris and the two dioceses in 1994, but he dropped it after a judge dismissed the dioceses from the case.

  Researchers have said that about 2 percent of Catholic clergy are pedophiles and 4 percent have an attraction to adolescent boys. Those percentages were described as about equal to those found in the general public.

  Anderson said he has seen improvement in the church's handling of molestation charges, but he believes there still is a long way to go.

  "The whole dimension of denial runs so deep," Anderson said. "It takes dramatic external pressure to purge an institution of that. And you don't do it in one case - or in one year. I haven't even seen it done in one decade."

  Even after the settlement announcement, some Harris supporters continued to back him.

  "Personally, I don't believe it (molestation) happened,'' said Scott Cody, who graduated from Santa Margarita High in 1995.

  Cody described Harris as a mentor and close friend who would sponsor "movie nights'' at his home to keep students out of trouble - not lure them into it.

  "I feel bad,'' said Cody, 28, of Mission Viejo. "Part of me - about 1 percent - says that if this happened, I feel sorry for (DiMaria). The other 99 percent says I feel sorry that Monsignor Harris has to go through all this, because he's done so many wonderful things for so many people.''

  Officials at Santa Margarita High School declined to comment.

  Harris' case is one of several in Orange County involving religious figures accused of molestation. While a parish priest at St. Bonaventure Catholic Church, Andrew Christian Andersen had sex with boys and was given probation and sent to a treatment center. After molesting another, he was sent to prison.

  John Lenihan molested a girl at St. Norbert Catholic Church in Orange. The Orange Diocese settled out of court with the victim's family. Lenihan now is parish priest at St. Edward Church in Dana Point.

  News researcher Eugene Balk contributed to this report.

  The LA Times story can be found here:

  http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-catholic-sex-abuse0821aug21.story

  http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-000067752aug21.story
• 

  Maximus

  I wonder how much the Society would be willing to pay to settle the Berry case? The lawsuits cherry tree is full of fruit, ripe for shaking ....

  Here's another article on the incident:
  http://www.msnbc.com/local/knbc/nbc5vioinqc.asp

  Snippets:

  Under the settlement providing for payment, the church also will implement a program of action against priests and other church employees alleged to be molesters, according to the attorneys and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

  The $5.2 million settlement stems from a lawsuit filed by Ryan DiMaria of Laguna Hills against the Bishop of Orange and the Archbishop of Los Angeles, alleging that as a 17-year-old he was molested in 1991 by Monsignor Michael A. Harris, then principal at Santa Margarita High School in the southern Orange County community of Rancho Santa Margarita.

  Kathy Freberg, the attorney for DiMaria, said the church has agreed to pay her client $5.2 million -- "the largest pretrial settlement of any Catholic priest molestation case in the United States."

  Under the settlement, Harris agreed to ask the Vatican to remove him from the priesthood, Freberg said.

  But despite his reported agreement to leave the church, Harris continued to deny he molested anyone and said in a statement that church leaders agreed to settle the case for "their own business reasons."

  One senior cleric, Bishop Tod D. Brown, head of the Diocese of Orange, effectively derided Harris's denial of involvement.

  "Although Michael Harris continues to deny any wrongdoing, the Diocese of Orange has grave doubts about his innocence in these matters, taking into consideration the number of complaints made against him, the similarity of those complaints and the apparent sincerity of the persons making these statements," Brown said in a statement.

  He expressed "profound sorrow" over the ordeal experienced by Harris's accusers, who he said had been courageous to come forward.

  "In a lawsuit brought by Ryan DiMaria against the Roman Catholic Bishop of Orange, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles and Michael Harris, it has been stated that in 1980, a priest of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles was informed of but failed to act upon information that Father Harris had sexually abused a student in the late 1970s while he was principal of Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana.

  "Sexual abuse is a serious sin. It devastates its victims physically, emotionally and spiritually. It also erodes the confidence the faithful place in their pastoral leaders. Such activity simply will not be tolerated in our church."

  Freberg said the church has agreed to issue apologies to DiMaria, to three other victims, and to the mother of a victim who is now deceased, and to send letters to all Catholic organizations in Orange and Los Angeles counties informing parishioners of the allegations.

  The district attorney's office reviewed DiMaria's accusations last year but found insufficient evidence to file criminal charges.

  A settlement between DiMaria and church authorities was reached nonetheless. "The evidence in our case was so strong," Freberg said, adding that lawyers uncovered documents and four other victims who said they were molested between 1977 and 1983.

  "They have come forward and acted as witnesses in our case," she said.

  Slated to receive apologies are David A. Price, who says Harris molested him at Mater Dei between 1979 and 1983 and who is pursuing his own suit against church authorities; Lenora Colice, whose son, the late Vincent Colice, said he was molested from 1977 to 1979 while a Mater Dei student; former Mater Dei student Mark Curran, who alleged Harris molested him in 1979; and Larry Raheb, who said he was molested by Harris while seeking his spiritual counsel in 1979.

  Freberg said DiMaria suffered "emotional trauma and pain and went into a tailspin in 1991" after Harris molested him. He now is finishing law school and plans to specialize in taxes, she said.

  Harris no longer says Mass or works as a school principal, but he is still called "father" or "monsignor" and wears a priests' collar, she said.

  "We wanted to take away the key he used to gain the trust of his victims and molest them," she said. "The goal is to get his collar removed."

  During a settlement meeting, she said, "we demanded that he request to be defrocked."

  "At the end of the day, after kicking and screaming, he agreed to the request," Freberg said. "The bishop will file papers with the Vatican so it can issue a decree."

  The paperwork should be submitted about Sept. 15 and the process should take about two months, she said, adding that, unless he was formally defrocked, Harris could be a priest in another country.

  The statement by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles cited 11 points in the agreement with DiMaria "which are already in place or under development by the Archdiocese." These included:

  - Removal of priests who molest children

  - The establishment of an 800 number and a Web site to allow for child-abuse complaints to be submitted anonymously

  - The distribution of an informational pamphlet on sexual abuse;

  - The reporting of child sexual abuse to the archbishop

  - A no-fraternization policy

  - Assistance to sexual-abuse victims

  - A procedure under which clergy will sign an agreement to be bound by the provisions of the "Archdiocesan Policy on Sexual Abuse by Clergy."

  - The reporting to civil authorities of child sexual abuse by clergy

  - Check-and-balance procedures involving reviews of Catholic school principals

  - The introduction of an exit-interview procedure for use with seminarians who leave prior to ordination

  - The maintenance of personnel files, each of which will include information on where additional data about an employee may be obtained.

  Harris, known as "Father Hollywood" in Orange County because of his charisma and good looks, stepped down as principal of Santa Margarita High School in October 1994, citing stress.

  Weeks later, he spent four days at St. Luke's Institute in Maryland, the Catholic Church's medical treatment center for troubled priests. Church doctors recommended that he be admitted for in-patient treatment and have no unsupervised contact with minors, according to court records cited by the Los Angeles Times.

  Doctors offered a psychiatric diagnosis, records show, finding that Harris was sexually attracted to adolescent boys.

  "Our clinical team believes that there is substance to the allegations," the institute report said, according to The Times.

  "It has been our experience that in many cases like these, the allegations that have surfaced are only a few of the actual incidents of abuse that have occurred."
• 

  Maximus

  Duplication bug ...
• 

  AMNESIAN

  Religion: O.C. man who alleged molestation by O.C. priest gets $5.2 million and the pledge of a new code of conduct.

  Well, my hat is certainly off to you for managing to stir at least some modest interest and response on this board to this highly significant and relevant development!

  [an ever-perplexed] -AMNESIAN