OAKLAND (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle [San Francisco CA]
April 22, 2026
By Anna Bauman
An Alameda County jury on Wednesday awarded $16 million in damages to a man who was sexually abused in the 1970s by a notorious Oakland priest, lawyers for the survivor said, marking a milestone decision in a wave of similar lawsuits filed in recent years.
The case is likely among the first to reach a jury verdict under the California Child Victims Act, a 2020 law that made it easier to bring litigation in decades-old child sexual assault claims, according to law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates.
“This is a case about accountability, it’s about justice,” Rick Simons, the lead trial lawyer for the survivor, said in a statement. “It’s about (the victim) finding his voice and regaining his power. We stand with him on this momentous day.”
The civil case was brought by an unnamed survivor who was abused as a child by Stephen Kiesle, a convicted criminal who was removed from the priesthood in 1987 — nearly a decade after he was arrested for molesting children.
Kiesle has been accused of abusing at least 15 children and named in 60 lawsuits filed under the 2020 California law, which extended the statute of limitations for survivors abused as children, according to Anderson & Associates.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland filed for bankruptcy in 2023 while facing more than 330 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of children by priests dating back decades. Nearly two decades earlier, in 2005, the diocese reached a $56 million settlement with 56 survivors of sexual abuse by clergymen.
The Anderson law firm said the bankruptcy filing was an attempt by the Oakland bishop to “escape accountability,” although Wednesday’s verdict emerged from the proceedings.
In 2024, Bishop Michael Barber issued a public apology to the survivors of child sexual abuse in the Oakland diocese, saying at the time: “I see the pain and destruction that was perpetrated by representatives of the Church.”
A spokesperson for the diocese said it “has implemented decisive policies for the protection of youth, and for the vetting and training of clergy, staff, and volunteers working in all Catholic institutions.”
“We pray that this decision helps bring peace and healing to the survivor,” the diocese said in a Wednesday statement. “Awards of this magnitude underscore the necessity of the bankruptcy process and a confirmed plan that pays all survivors fairly and equitably, not just those fortunate enough to be first in line for a trial.”
Dioceses across the U.S. have filed for bankruptcy amid a slew of clergy abuse lawsuits that have resulted in large settlements.
Kiesle was ordained in 1972 and worked in parishes around the East Bay, including in St. Joseph’s in Pinole, Our Lady of Rosary in Union City and St. Columba’s in Oakland.
He was arrested in 1978 for tying up and molesting two boys at his parish, for which he received counseling and three years of probation.
Kiesle asked to leave the priesthood in 1981. The Vatican approved his defrocking in 1987. During the in-between years, Kiesle worked as a youth minister in Pinole.
In 2002, Kiesle was charged with molesting five children in the 1960s and 1970s when he was a priest in Fremont. However, after the U.S. Supreme Court changed the statute of limitations for child molestation, the charges were dropped.
In 2004, Kiesle pleaded no contest to molesting a young girl at his Truckee home in 1995. He was sentenced to six years in prison and released in 2010.
Kiesle then moved to a gated retirement community in Walnut Creek, where he struck and killed a 64-year-old pedestrian in a 2022 drunken-driving incident.
Kiesle was found guilty of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and is now serving a six-year prison sentence at California Medical Facility in Vacaville, according to court and inmate records. He is eligible for parole in February 2028.
Reporter Anna Bauman joined the Chronicle in March 2025 as a breaking news reporter. Previously, she was an investigative reporter at Open Vallejo and before that, an education reporter at the Houston Chronicle, where her work earned recognition from the Texas Managing Editor Awards in 2024. A Kansas City native, Anna’s early career traces back to San Francisco as a breaking news reporter for the Chronicle through the Hearst Journalism Fellowship program, which includes two 12-month rotations at Hearst’s top newspapers. During her fellowship, she reported on the COVID-19 pandemic, the police killing of Sean Monterrosa in Vallejo, and played a key role in the Chronicle’s award-winning coverage of the Kincade Fire in 2019. anna.bauman@sfchronicle.com