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  Claimants Rejected by Panel Appeal to Judge
More Than 60 Claims of Sexual Abuse Have Been Turned down by a Panel Reviewing Them in Diocese's Bankruptcy Case

By Sheryl Kornman
Tucson Citizen [Tucson AZ]
June 30, 2005

Today, dozens of people were expected to ask a federal bankruptcy judge in Tucson to reconsider their rejected claims of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy. More than 60 claims were turned down by a panel the judge appointed to review them as part of the process to reorganize the operation of the Diocese of Tucson under Chapter 11 bankruptcy law.

In all, 103 claims were received. The panel has set up a ranking system for paying victims.

The diocese has agreed to pay at least $15 million to victims of abuse by its clergy in its effort to move beyond the pedophilia scandal that has tainted the church here.

The diocese filed for Chapter 11 protection Sept. 20, 2004, in the face of mounting new claims of sexual abuse following a $14 million clergy sex abuse settlement reached in civil court in 2002.

As the reorganization effort under Chapter 11 got under way, federal bankruptcy Judge James Marlar named a panel of lawyers and sexual abuse victims to the "tort claims committee." It is that panel that has been reviewing the abuse claims filed by the court's April 15 deadline.

Thirty claimants have reached a settlement agreement with the panel on an initial payout to settle their claims.

Marlar approved the agreement last month.

The total initial payout for all of them would be around $10 million, some of it coming from the diocese's insurers.

Some people with believable claims that were rejected have been offered a one-time payment of $15,000 each as a gesture of fairness, Bishop Gerald Kicanas has said.

While the incidents of abuse may have taken place, they fall outside Arizona's statute of limitations. The claimants would have no legal standing if they sued the diocese in civil court.

Others have been offered nothing.

It is those individuals who were expected to tell the judge why they should receive compensation.

If the judge refuses them, a "special master" appointed by Marlar, retired Pima County Superior Court Judge Lena Rodriguez, will hear them.

Brian O'Connor, secretary of the tort claimants committee, has his own claim pending against the diocese. He alleges two priests and a former bishop of Phoenix abused him while he was a teenager with a drug problem.

His case is being handled by an attorney, O'Connor said. He is staying out of those negotiations so he can review others' claims impartially, he said.

As he read the claims of abuse, O'Connor said he came across a familiar name. He read this claimant's allegations of abuse by a priest who was O'Connor's abuser when he was a troubled teenager.

"All of a sudden I could smell (the priest's) alcohol-tobacco breath and it just gave me the heebie-jeebies," he said.

O'Connor said one of the priests was Robert Trupia, who first helped him kick his heroin habit and then asked him for sex.

Trupia was acknowledged publicly as a serial pedophile by the Tucson Diocese and removed from the priesthood in August 2004 by the Vatican at the urging of the diocese.

"I know there are going to be some people unhappy after the hearing," O'Connor said earlier this week.

"I wish I could make everybody happy. But in the end, it will be the best job we could do with what we have under the constraints of the law."

The next hearing in the Chapter 11 case, a confirmation hearing on the reorganization plan, is set for July 11. Objections to the plan must be filed with the court by tomorrow.

The reorganization plan includes a provision for parishes to become legally incorporated entities separate from the diocese within a year.

Who owns the assets of the parishes has been a point of contention in the Chapter 11 case.

Kicanas said parish properties do not belong to him and he can't force them to pay victims, though he has suggested they contribute to the settlement fund for victims.

The lawyer for the parishes has said they will contribute to the settlement fund.

Attorney Lynne Cadigan, who represents 30 claimants, said this week she still has not been told how much they will pay.