Victims to give sworn statements, mediation moves forward in Guam's clergy sex abuse cases

By Haidee V. Eugenio
Pacific Daily News
March 20, 2018

https://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2018/03/20/victims-give-sworn-statements-mediation-moves-forward-guams-clergy-sex-abuse-cases/440582002/

From left, Attorneys Samuel Teker, Kevin Fowler and Duncan McCully exit the U.S. District Court building Tuesday morning after a joint status conference on 160 clergy sex abuse cases in local and federal court. Fowler represents 11 clergy abuse survivors. Teker represents one of the defendants in the cases, the Congregation of Holy Cross, while McCully represents another defendant, the Capuchin Franciscans. Photo by Haidee Eugenio

Seattle-based Attorney Michael Patterson, representing the Archdiocese of Agana, left, and Boy Scouts of America's attorney, Patrick Civille, right, exit the U.S. District Court of Guam building Tuesday morning after a joint status conference on 160 Guam clergy sex abuse cases and one defamation case against former Archbishop Anthony Apuron. Photo by Haidee Eugenio

Clergy sex abuse accusers will begin providing sworn statements for case review and claims evaluation Wednesday. Mediation has been pushed back to Sept. 17-19 as part of the process to try to settle 160 sex abuse cases.

A new lawsuit was filed Tuesday, with another Capuchin Franciscan priest named as a defendant for the first time.

Three sets of lawyers, led by Attorneys Delia Lujan Wolff/David Lujan, Kevin Fowler and Michael Berman, are proceeding with mediation for 150 plaintiffs. Ten other accusers, represented by attorney Anthony Perez, haven't signed off on the proposed pre-mediation protocols due to settlement concerns.

On Tuesday, the parties updated U.S. District Court Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood and Superior Court of Guam Judge Michael Bordallo at a joint status conference for clergy sex abuse cases filed in local and federal court.

Lawyers for the Archdiocese of Agana, a defendant in all the clergy abuse cases, are optimistic they will be able to work out differences with Perez.

"We are going forward with the mediation," Seattle-based Attorney Michael Patterson, co-counsel for the archdiocese, along with Attorney John Terlaje.

The mediator in the case, Antonio Piazza of the San Francisco-based Mediated Negotiations, will be on Guam for the three-day mediation, Patterson said.

Patterson said the archdiocese is willing to have a separate protocol for Perez's clients.

"We’ve indicated that we will be evaluating these cases on an individual basis. It’s our hope that we will reach a global resolution, but each of these cases is an individual case," Patterson said.

Perez told the judges on Tuesday his clients haven't changed their position from the previous status conference in January — the defendants would make available money and plaintiffs would have to decide among themselves how to divide it.

Based on Tydingco-Gatewood and Bordallo's data, there are 160 clergy sex abuse cases, with the Archdiocese of Agana as a defendant in all of them. One other case mentioned at the status conference is a $2 million defamation lawsuit against former Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron.

Berman said his law firm has so far filed 32 clergy sex abuse cases, while Fowler said they represent 11 clients and Perez said he has 10 clients. That leaves 107 represented by Lujan, excluding the Apuron defamation suit.

More lawyers are now involved in Guam's clergy sex abuse lawsuits. Samuel Tekker and Indiana-based Richard Nussbaum, are representing the Congregation of the Holy Cross; Duncan McCully is representing the Sisters of Mercy; and Vincent Camacho is representing the Capuchin Franciscans. Also attending via phone conference was Wayson Wong, representing former priest David Anderson, and Steven Reich from Seattle, who works with Fowler. The Boy Scouts of America was represented in court by Patrick Civille.

Attorney Jacqueline Terlaje asked the court to exclude in the local and federal court proceedings the recent Vatican decision in Apuron's canonical trial.

A specially appointed Vatican tribunal announced on March 16 that Apuron was "guilty of certain accusations" that included sexual abuse of minors. It stripped the 72-year-old of his office and prohibited him from returning to the Archdiocese of Agana.

Apuron said he's innocent and would appeal the Vatican tribunal's ruling.

Starting March 21, Patterson said, the archdiocese will begin getting sworn statements from plaintiffs.

The first to be deposed will be Berman's clients, projected to last three days, Berman said, followed by Fowler's clients and then Lujan's. There will be separate depositions for clients living off island.