Camden Diocese Agrees to Settle Sex-Abuse Suit
It will pay $880,000 to 23 people who said they were abused by priests

By David O'Reilly
Philadelphia Inquirer
March 14, 2003

After nine years of tough legal maneuverings, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Camden has agreed to pay $880,000 to 23 men and women who filed suit over their sexual abuse as children.

The payment, announced yesterday, is far less than the $14 million that the Diocese of Tucson, Ariz., paid 11 people in a similar class-action case or the $10 million that Boston paid 86 victims, both last year.

One Camden plaintiff, Gary Mulford, expressed frustration with the amount and said that the diocese's lawyers had "victimized us again" with humiliating questions and suggestions that victims were accomplices in their abuse.

Even the judge in the case, John G. Himmelberger Jr. of state Superior Court in Atlantic County, had scolded the diocese for "legal hardball."

Andrew Walton, spokesman for the diocese, yesterday defended the tough defense.

The victims, all of whom were adults, had brought their suit years beyond the statute of limitations, Walton said, and the plaintiffs' lawyers had failed to persuade the judge to lift the statute.

"We're pleased to have this settled," said Walton, adding that Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio hoped to meet now with each of the victims. "He feels personal outreach is essential. He was eager to allow that to occur through this settlement."

Walton said he did not know how much money the diocese spent defending itself against the charges, some of which dated to 1961, "but it was far less than what they [the plaintiffs] were seeking."

According to Walton, the plaintiffs' lawyers asked for $50million during a mediation effort three years ago.

Edward Ross, a partner in the Margate firm of Ross & Rubino, which represented the plaintiffs, would not confirm or deny that figure but criticized Walton for mentioning a figure to reporters.

The plaintiffs' lawyers will get $300,000 of the $880,000. The remainder will be distributed to the plaintiffs - most of whom are in their 30s and 40s - according to a formula devised by the lawyers.

No other sex-abuse lawsuits are pending against the diocese, Walton said.

In the early 1990s, the diocese settled a similar multi-victim suit for $3.2 million.

In Philadelphia, a special grand jury is investigating clergy sex abuse in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Recent grand-jury investigations in the Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y., and in New Hampshire have exposed widespread abuse and cover-ups and systematic efforts by diocesan leaders to thwart victims' efforts at legal redress.

Ross said that Himmelberger, in pretrial hearings last year, had declined to order the diocese to turn over the defendant priests' personnel records.

New Jersey law permits "late discovery" of childhood sex abuse - meaning that an adult victim can file suit within two years of remembering abuse or recognizing its psychological damage - but only if a judge allows it. Himmelberger repeatedly rejected the victims' late-discovery claims.

The out-of-court settlement involves victims who say they either repressed the memory of the abuse or failed to recognize the psychological damage.

New Jersey lawmakers have introduced identical bills in both houses of the state legislature that would remove the statute of limitations for filing child sexual-abuse lawsuits. Neither bill has been moved from its judiciary committee.

"There needs to be a legal change in New Jersey. It's that simple," said Ross.

Mulford and another plaintiff said yesterday that despite their disappointment with the Camden settlement, they had succeeded in helping to expose clergy sex abuse.

"I have mixed feelings," said Mulford, 43, of New Gretna, Burlington County.

"I don't know how much the public realizes how long this has dragged out and how much we have been dragged through as plaintiffs."

He said the diocese lawyers had "victimized us again" in depositions and on the stand, sometimes insinuating that victims were willing accomplices to their molestation.

Mulford also called "appalling" the diocese's pursuit of the statute-of-limitations defense.

"They kept us from seeking justice for having our childhood ripped out of us at age 12," he said.

Mulford, who said he was abused by four priests, said litigating had helped him heal emotionally.

Robert Young, 38, another victim, said the lawsuit "was long and painful but definitely worth it. We were able to keep it [clergy sex abuse] within the public eye. . . . I never thought it would take nine years."

Both said they planned to meet with Bishop DiMarzio. Mulford said the meeting "would be reconciliation," while Young said he wanted to tell the bishop that the diocese should have "accepted their wrongfulness instead of defending it."

Contact David O'Reilly at 215-854-5621 or doreilly@phillynews.com

Inquirer staff writer Troy Graham contributed to this article.