CALIFORNIA
OpEd News
By
Joey Piscitelli
The credibility of a “repressed memory” case of child sex abuse has been an ongoing dispute in legal and psychological arenas for decades. But currently the issue is being tackled in a Superior Court in Lodi , California. The victim, a 37 year old man who has regained his memory of his child sex abuse at Cathedral of the Annunciation in the 1980’s, is prevailing in a major court trial that will have far reaching impact. The victim claims he was repeatedly abused by Fr. Michael Kelly; who has been kept in ministry clear up to the day of the recent court jury verdict against him.
The case, John TZ Doe vs. Fr. Kelly and the Diocese of Stockton, has gone through the first of two phases of the judicial system. The first phase of the case was a jury trial which heard evidence from the plaintiff, defendant, witnesses and experts; and that jury was to decide if the plaintiffs recall of past repressed memories was accurate, and credible.
The ten woman, two man jury found the defendant Fr. Kelly liable on multiple counts of assault and sexual abuse, based on the victim’s testimony of his recovered memories.
Although Fr. Kelly can not be convicted criminally for the sexual assault, because of the criminal statute of limitations, he was held civilly liable, which is governed by a different statute of limitations.
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