Just Looking for Money, Annysa Johnson, California Catholic Daily, January 4, 2010

“Just Looking for Money”

By Annysa Johnson
California Catholic Daily
January 4, 2010

http://calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=5e728319-a2d5-4a99-b575-2fd4488c639d

Undercover deputy who arrested priest in sex sting now wants Church to pay him for “mental and emotional distress”

A San Luis Obispo County sheriff’s deputy involved in the 2007 lewd conduct arrest of a Catholic priest has filed a civil claim for unspecified damages, alleging he was emotionally traumatized by the circumstances leading up to the arrest and should be compensated by both the priest and the Catholic Church.

The lawsuit was filed by Deputy John Franklin, who on July 18, 2007, was working undercover at the area around Pirate’s Cove, a nude beach with a reputation as a hook-up spot for homosexuals. Franklin allegedly spotted the priest, Fr. Geronimo Cuevas, then 52, standing in the brush rubbing his genitals through his shorts. “I asked him (Cuevas), ‘What have you got over there,” Franklin said in the arrest report. “With his right hand he motioned for me to come towards me and he stated, ‘Touch me.’ I took two steps towards him asking him, ‘What did you say?’ He reached out with his right hand and touched my genitals,” Franklin said in the report. Franklin then informed Cuevas, who claimed he was unemployed and living in Las Vegas, that he was under arrest for sexual battery and lewd acts.

“I think John Franklin is just looking for money,” Thomas Riordan, vicar for temporalities for the Diocese of Monterey told CalCoastNews. “We continue to be surprised by his actions.” CalCoastNews says it is “San Luis Obispo County’s only on-line independent news source producing in-depth investigative news in the public interest.”

According to Franklin, his encounter with Fr. Cuevas has caused him to suffer “mental and emotional distress including feelings of anger, rage, disgust, revulsion and embarrassment as a result of the despicable and oppressive behavior” of Fr. Cuevas, former assistant pastor at St. Joseph’s Church in Nipomo, and previously pastor of St. Mary of the Nativity Church in East Salinas.

The Diocese of Monterey issued a statement on July 20, 2007 – just two days after the arrest – noting that Bishop Richard Garcia had placed Cuevas on administrative leave and had removed his priestly faculties “pending outcome of the criminal investigation.” According to CalCoastNews, diocesan officials said Fr. Cuevas’ priestly faculties remain suspended.

In June 2008, Fr. Cuevas pleaded no contest in San Luis Obispo Superior Court to charges of having committed sex crimes. He was ordered to serve a three-year probation, pay a $750 fine, perform 40 hours of community service, and attend an AIDS education class.

“My client (Franklin) was ordered to do patrol duty there,” James R. Murphy, Franklin’s attorney, told CalCoastNews. “While he was minding his own business, he was grabbed by a priest.” After Fr. Cuevas’ no-contest plea to the charges against him, Murphy sent a demand letter to the Diocese of Monterey seeking monetary damages.

“A demand was made upon the diocese and refused,” diocesan attorney Paul Gaspari told CalCoastNews. “I think it was a claim that had no foundation in law or fact.”

Gaspari and Fr. Cuevas’s personal attorney, James McKiernan, told CalCoastNews the deputy’s claim runs afoul of the so-called “Fireman’s Rule.” The rule, established by court precedents in California, “bars lawsuits by police officers and firefighters for collecting on damages that occur in the course of their duties, even when there is negligence by another party,” the online newspaper reported.

“In a nutshell, firemen get burned, dog catchers get bitten, police get shot and vice cops get groped,” McKiernan says in court documents, according to CalCoastNews. “A person, like the defendant, specifically hired to encounter and combat particular dangers is owed no independent tort duty by the party who created the dangers.”

CalCoastNews reported that “Franklin has filed numerous workers’ compensation claims for incidents such as slipping down an embankment and multiple exposures to blood and toxic mold, according to court documents. However, he has not filed a workers’ compensation claim or received medical assistance regarding the Pirates Cove incident.”

“Another bone of contention,” said the online newspaper, “centers around why Franklin has continued to serve as an armed sheriff’s deputy when he states in his civil claim that he suffers from daily feelings of anger and rage.”

“This is the type of lawsuit that gives the judicial system and lawyers a bad name,” McKiernan told CalCoastNews. “This is a case when the ranting, raving, threatening and blustering is over, the Fireman’s Rule will kick it out of court.”