WASHINGTON
Seattle Times
Posted by Paige Cornwell
The Seattle Archdiocese has agreed to pay $12.125 million to 30 men who say they were sexually abused as children decades ago at Seattle’s O’Dea High School and Briscoe Memorial School in Kent.
In lawsuits filed in King County Superior Court, the men allege the Seattle Archdiocese failed to protect them from known abusers, including two former O’Dea teachers who were members of the Christian Brothers Catholic order, which filed for bankruptcy in April 2011. The Christian Brothers operated O’Dea and Briscoe, a former orphanage and boarding school for boys, but both schools were owned by the Archdiocese.
“I deeply regret the pain suffered by these victims,” Archbishop J. Peter Sartain said this afternoon in a statement. “Our hope is that this settlement will bring them closure and allow them to continue the process of healing.”
Seattle attorney Mike Pfau, who represented the 30 men, said today the settlement puts an “end to the ugly chapter for the Archdiocese.” He said his clients, who range in age from 42 to 68, feel relieved after the decade of litigation in the wake of the abuse, from the early 1950s until 1984.
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