TEXAS
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Sylvia Demarest’s Gift of Disturbing Data – The Texas Law Book
TWENTY YEARS AGO THIS MONTH, AN EXTRAORDINARY TRIAL TOOK PLACE IN A DALLAS COUNTY COURT. IT PITTED 10 YOUNG MEN AND THE FAMILY OF ANOTHER AGAINST THE DALLAS CATHOLIC DIOCESE. THIS SPECIAL REPORT TELLS THE STORY OF THE TRIAL OF RUDY KOS, A REMARKABLE AND HISTORIC TALE OF COURTROOM JUSTICE.
Bruce Tomaso, The Texas Lawbook
Editor’s note: The following article contains sexually explicit references.
A dozen jurors walked into a Dallas courtroom two decades ago to deliver their verdict. For more than two months, they listened to graphic, horrifying testimony about a pedophile priest who preyed on young boys for years.
Witness after witness told their detailed stories of sexual abuse that stretched years by Rudy Kos, a long-time priest in the Roman Catholic Church. Even lawyers for the church and its bishop provided evidence against the priestly pervert in their own ranks.
Twenty years ago this month, the 12 Texas jurors issued a decision that rocked the very foundation of the church. They decreed that the church itself had sinned – that church leaders were grossly negligent because they knew about the sexual abuse but did nothing to stop it.
The jury ruled that the Catholic Diocese engaged in fraud and conspiracy to hide the crimes of Kos from the public, from law enforcement and even from parishioners. The jury awarded a historic and unprecedented $119.6 million to 10 young men who had been repeatedly molested as children by Kos. An 11th plaintiff had killed himself prior to trial.
In an extraordinary move, the jurors wrote a letter to the diocese, which they read in open court after their verdict was rendered. The letter urged church leaders to change their policies on dealing with reports of child abuse.
“Please admit your guilt,” the jurors said, “and allow these young men to get on with their lives.”
“We asked this jury to speak to the world, and they have done that,” Dallas lawyer Windle Turley said after the verdict.
Sylvia Demarest, another lawyer involved in the case, told reporters, “I hope they wake up the pope with this verdict.”
The diocese, claiming the jury’s judgment would plunge it into bankruptcy, settled with the plaintiffs for $30.9 million.
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