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  Judge's Order Will Allow Suits Vs. Diocese to Proceed

By Onell R. Soto
Union-Tribune [San Diego CA]
November 19, 2005

A judge has lifted a 2½-year-old order freezing several lawsuits accusing the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego of condoning or ignoring staff members who sexually abused children over the past few decades.

The move is a first step toward getting the claims of sexual abuse before juries, said a lawyer for people who say they were abused by priests and others who worked for the San Diego diocese.

"The judge has made it clear these cases are going to trial," lawyer Irwin Zalkin said.

Micheal Webb, a lawyer for the San Diego diocese, said the judge's order is narrow and only allows limited litigation.

"It is very clear that this is not wide open," he said.

He noted the judge didn't set any trial dates in the Nov. 8 order.

The order covers 23 of 153 cases from San Diego being coordinated by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Haley Fromholz.

The judge also is coordinating several hundred cases against the Diocese of Los Angeles. He lifted a freeze on litigation on 44 of those cases.

Hundreds of cases were filed in 2003 after a state law was changed to allow people who believe they were sexually abused as children to sue institutions such as the Roman Catholic Church.

Because the hundreds of cases from Southern California involve the same issues, they are being coordinated before Fromholz, who asked other judges to try to mediate settlements for the cases.

Cases against the Orange County diocese were settled for $100 million in 2004.

However, such mediation for the San Diego cases has reached an impasse, Zalkin said.

The judge's order formally sets up how cases involving 23 people who say they were abused will go forward, specifically that church officials may bring motions to try to get the cases thrown out. The cases involve about a dozen priests; some are deceased, while others have left the priesthood.

Mediation will continue, Zalkin said, and having the possibility of a trial might help get the parties to a settlement.

Either way, he said, "We'll finally get resolution."

Meanwhile, a San Diego federal judge has yet to rule on a request by church officials that he invalidate the state law allowing the lawsuits.

 
 

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