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	Last Plaintiff in Trial against Seattle Archdiocese Settles The Only Remaining Plaintiff in a Trial against the Seattle Archdiocese Settled His Case This Evening for $700,000. By Janet I. Tu Seattle Times May 19, 2009 http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009238002_webchurchtrial19.html The only remaining plaintiff in a trial against the Seattle Archdiocese settled his case this evening for $700,000. The 44-year-old Auburn man reached the settlement after an emotional morning of testimony about his abuse by former Spokane priest Patrick O'Donnell. The plaintiff "felt really good that he got to tell his story — that was the most important thing," said plaintiff's attorney Timothy Kosnoff. He also felt proud that he'd been able to get Seattle Archdiocese leaders to court, and that he got former Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen to publicly "admit that mistakes were made," Kosnoff said. This was the first priest sex-abuse trial against the Seattle Roman Catholic Archdiocese. It stemmed from a lawsuit filed in 2005 by four men who said the archdiocese didn't do enough to protect them from O'Donnell, who has admitted to molesting many boys, including the plaintiff. Two of the four plaintiffs settled before trial; the third settled Monday. At issue in the trial was whether and when the Seattle Archdiocese knew of O'Donnell's abusive history when he served from 1976 to 1978 at Seattle's St. Paul Church, and whether the archdiocese should be held liable. O'Donnell had been sent by the Spokane bishop to Seattle for sexual-deviancy treatment after abuse allegations against him surfaced in Spokane. The $700,000 settlement is the same amount that was offered to the plaintiff before the trial started more than a week ago. Kosnoff said part of the reason his client settled were questions asked by some jurors after the client's testimony this morning, in which he said he had been abused by O'Donnell in Seattle, and then went to visit the priest in Spokane, where he was abused again. "In honesty, we were influenced by those four jurors who asked these questions about why he went back," Kosnoff said. "I don't want to call it blaming the victim, but it definitely signaled to us that jurors had questions about that and we had to take that into account." His client had settled earlier with the Spokane Diocese and the Sulpician Roman Catholic order that ran the seminary O'Donnell attended. Altogether, the settlements total about $1.2 or $1.3 million, not including attorney's fees. Janet I. Tu: 206-464-2272 or jtu@seattletimes.com
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