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	Expert Witness Minimizes Effect of Priests' Sex Abuse By Steve Rubenstein San Francisco Chronicle [San Francisco CA] March 24, 2005 Youngsters sexually abused by priests can "sometimes slide right over it with no perceived effects," a psychologist hired by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco testified Wednesday. Jonathan French, a San Francisco psychologist and sex abuse expert, told a Superior Court jury that he found molestation victim Dennis Kavanaugh had suffered no significant psychological problems after being molested as a teenager in the early 1970s by a San Jose priest. "He seems like an upbeat, decent guy," French testified. "He's a survivor. He managed to get married, raise kids. I don't see much evidence that this (molestation) significantly interfered with his daily life. He had friends. He did stuff." French said some kinds of molestation are worse than others and that the kind that Kavanaugh suffered was relatively mild, as it was not accompanied by physical violence or threats. "Some people roll with it; others are severely damaged," French said. Last week, the jury found that the archdiocese knew or should have known that the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard had repeatedly molested Kavanaugh, now 47, at St. Martin of Tours church in San Jose. Today, the jury is expected to begin deliberating how much in damages the archdiocese must pay. On Wednesday, the final day of testimony in the two-week trial, the archdiocese presented French as its only witness to explain that not all of Kavanaugh's problems in life had been caused by priestly sexual abuse. At one point, French appeared to suggest that Kavanaugh had allowed the abuse to continue. "He tolerated the abuse," French said. "He thought it was weird. He probably didn't care for it, but he so valued his relationship with Father Pritchard that he put up with it." Kavanaugh, a former Silicon Valley salesman who now works as a gardener, testified that Pritchard had molested him about 30 times, in the priest's rectory bedroom, in his car, on a Santa Clara golf course and in a New Orleans hotel room. He did not disclose the abuse for 34 years. He testified Monday that he had problems with intimacy as an adult. During divorce proceedings three years ago, he stole a gun, held it on his wife and threatened to kill her. He was convicted and served a year in prison. Kavanaugh's lawsuit is the first to go to trial in California under a 2002 state law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations in child molestation cases. About 75 such suits have been filed against the San Francisco archdiocese and 40 against the Diocese of Oakland.
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