CALIFORNIA
Contra Costa Times
By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY, Monterey Herald
POSTED: 12/10/2013
Barring intervention by an appellate court, depositions and other records from the child molestation lawsuit against the Rev. Edward Fitz-Henry and the Diocese of Monterey will be released next month.
Monterey County Judge Thomas Wills made final Monday his tentative ruling that there was no compelling reason to withhold the records. They were previously sealed to avoid tainting the prospective jury pool when the case was still headed for trial. It was ultimately settled with a $500,000 payment to the alleged victim.
Wills stayed his order for 45 days to allow attorneys for Fitz-Henry and the diocese to appeal to the 6th District Court of Appeals. Paul Gaspari, who represents the diocese and Bishop Richard Garcia, said they are “certainly going to look very, very closely” at appealing.
“We are being forced to do the impossible,” Gaspari said, “to try this (case) again in the press without the ability to defend ourselves in the press because we are not going to violate” the privacy rights of “individuals who were swept up in this.”
The Monterey County Weekly sought to lift the protective order barring release of the records, arguing there was an overriding public interest in knowing what and when the diocese knew about the allegations against Fitz-Henry and what it did to protect its young parishioners and other juveniles in the community.
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