Church faces $75M in federal court lawsuits

By Haidee V Eugenio
Pacific Daily News
February 7, 2017

http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2017/02/07/church-faces-75m-federal-court-lawsuits/97581720/

Retired Army sergeant and former Our Lady of Peace Church altar boy, Ramon Afaisen De Plata, 62, poses for pictures at the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral Basilica in Hagatna on Sept. 11. De Plata has recently come forward to share his first hand account of of sexual misconduct by Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron and Pale Antonio Cruz during his time as an altar boy. Photo by Frank San Nicolas

The Archdiocese of Agana, the Vatican and some Catholic priests now face 15 sex abuse lawsuits in U.S. District Court, asking for $75 million. Another former altar boy is expected to sue the church later this week.

The lawsuits had been in the Superior Court of Guam, but after eight judges recused themselves from hearing those cases, citing conflicts of interest, attorney David Lujan started to file the cases in federal court.

Lujan’s law firm said Tuesday they filed a motion to dismiss the 15 clergy sex abuse lawsuits in the Superior Court. A new abuse complaint could be filed as early as Wednesday, the law firm stated.

The Archdiocese of Agana continues to expand its legal defense team, with a fourth California-based lawyer tapped by local attorney John C. Terlaje to serve as co-counsel for the church.

Attorney Daniel C. Zamora, a shareholder at the San Francisco law firm of Weintraub Tobin Chediak Coleman Grodin, filed in federal court on Monday a petition to appear as co-counsel for the archdiocese.

Former altar boys Paul Joseph Borja, 63, Ramon Afaisen De Plata, 62, and Edward Robert Chan, 45, on Tuesday filed separate clergy abuse lawsuits in federal court. This brings to 15 the total cases filed in federal court.

Each of the 15 clergy sex abuse lawsuits demands a jury trial and at least $5 million in general damages, for a combined minimum total of $75 million, plus attorney’s fees and other costs.

Borja, a Chalan Pago resident, alleged that the late Catholic priest Antonio C. Cruz sexually abused him when he was a 12-year-old altar boy, in or about 1965. Cruz died in 1986.

The same dead priest is also being accused of attempted sexual molestation by De Plata, also a resident of Chalan Pago. De Plata said he was around 10 years old, in or about March 1964, when Cruz enticed and lured him on multiple occasions to engage in sexual conduct.

Chan, now living in Vancouver, Washington, said he was a 12-year-old altar boy, in or about 1983, when former island priest Raymond Cepeda sexually molested and abused him.

In 2009, the archdiocese removed Cepeda from the priesthood after it investigated “serious allegations” of sexual abuse allegedly committed by him.

Among the priests accused in federal court is Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron, 71, who is also undergoing a canonical trial at the Vatican over multiple sex abuse allegations.

Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes last week said the archdiocese’s options in the clergy abuse cases include out-of-court settlement.