CALIFORNIA
The Orange County Register
By GREG HARDESTY / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A sex-abuse and cover-up lawsuit against former Monsignor Michael Harris, a once-popular and high-profile figure who left the priesthood when Orange County’s clergy scandal erupted a decade ago, is set to go to trial June 18 in Orange County Superior Court.
The plaintiff accuses Harris, former principal of Mater Dei and Santa Margarita Catholic high schools, of sexually abusing him in late 1986 or early 1987 at Mater Dei. The high school in Santa Ana and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange also are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
Although Harris has denied molesting minors and never has been charged criminally, he was part of a landmark $5.2 million settlement in 2001 that the Los Angeles and Orange dioceses made with his accuser, former Santa Margarita Catholic High School student Ryan DiMaria.
In 2005, nine accusers of Harris settled lawsuits with the Diocese of Orange, and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles listed 12 accusers of Harris in a 2004 report on clergy sexual abuse.
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