BishopAccountability.org
	Jury in Priest Abuse Lawsuit Faults Church By Robin Evans Contra Costa Times [California] March 19, 2005 In a decision that could affect dozens of similar cases, the first jury to reach a verdict in California's nearly 850 clergy molestation lawsuits found Friday that there were enough signs of suspicious behavior by a San Jose pastor that church officials should have reported, investigated and stopped it. The civil lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court was brought by 47-year-old Palo Alto resident Dennis Kavanaugh, who said he was abused as a boy by St. Martin of Tours Church pastor Joseph Pritchard from 1971 to 1973. The jury reconvenes Monday to determine damages, a process Judge John Munter estimated would take a week. Other Pritchard cases are scheduled to follow. But the verdict is likely to put pressure on the church to settle the other cases, said attorney Robert Tobin, who has three clients whose cases are next in line for trial. The announcement of the verdict was met with elation by alleged victims of other priests who had sat through the four-day trial. When one tearful woman rushed to congratulate him on the "miracle" of the verdict, plaintiff's attorney Larry Drivon said, "It wasn't a miracle. It was justice." David Clohessy, national director of the Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests, hugged Drivon and, choking back tears, said the decision gave "so many survivors what they desperately want -- a chance to expose the truth in court under oath." Clohessy also telephoned John Salberg, a San Jose high school teacher and one of the few Pritchard victims to make his story public. Salberg, who took the call on his cell phone while giving a test, said he was "euphoric. It's the ultimate justification of wrongdoing and accountability, which is exactly what the church preaches. We all have to be accountable and atone for our mistakes." San Francisco Archdiocese attorney Paul Gaspari said he was "disappointed" in the verdict, but thought "the case was well tried by both sides." The lawsuit is one of the first two in Northern California to go to trial; the jury is still being selected in a case against the Diocese of Oakland. Kavanaugh is one of 22 former St. Martin's parish grade-school students who said they were repeatedly molested by Pritchard, who died in 1988. The San Francisco Archdiocese, which included San Jose up until 1981, is also being sued by Pritchard's nephew for molestation in 1959 at a San Mateo high school where Pritchard taught. Gaspari said church attorneys won't have any idea whether the Kavanaugh case will have an impact on the remaining cases until the damages portion of the trial is concluded. Drivon said he has not decided on a damage amount to ask for, or whether he will even specify an amount to the jury. But the first group settlement in the state's clergy molestation cases might offer a clue: In December, the diocese of Orange County agreed to pay 90 plaintiffs $100 million. The Kavanaugh case essentially turned on what a religious order priest saw and whether he was an "agent" of the church who should have reported suspicious behavior. Two of Pritchard's other victims, now 40 and 43, testified that on several occasions during the same years Kavanaugh was molested, the Rev. Lino Pelerzi walked into the priest's private quarters when they were sitting on his lap, being fondled under their clothes.