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  S.F. Archdiocese Admits Negligence in Abuse Cases

By Jean Guccione
Los Angeles Times [San Francisco CA]
March 29, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO - The San Francisco Archdiocese acknowledged in court Monday that it had failed to thoroughly investigate a sex-abuse complaint against a priest in 1977, an unusual admission that comes as it and the Oakland Diocese face trials this week brought by alleged victims.

Both cases are receiving statewide attention because they are among the first to come to trial since the Catholic Church was hit by the abuse scandal three years ago. Legal experts said the amount of the settlements probably would influence the outcomes of more than 700 cases statewide, 544 of which involve the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

The San Francisco case involves Father Joseph T. Pritchard, now deceased, who is accused of molesting at least 22 children throughout the 1970s. In a statement read by a judge Monday to prospective jurors, the archdiocese admitted that it did not investigate "thoroughly enough or do enough at that time to protect the children."

The statement also acknowledged that three fellow priests "sometimes walked into the room where sexual molestation had been taking place and should have seen enough circumstances to make them suspicious of Father Pritchard's behavior" and reported it to his superiors.

A jury last week awarded one of Pritchard's earliest victims $437,000. Jury selection began Monday in the case of four other victims who have brought civil suits.

Across San Francisco Bay in Hayward, the Oakland Diocese on Monday faced a lawsuit brought by two brothers who said they were abused by another priest. Legal experts said the case could result in much higher jury awards than the San Francisco case because the attorney is seeking punitive damages on behalf of one of the brothers, something none of the victims in the Pritchard case have sought so far.

In the statement read in court Monday by San Francisco County Superior Court Judge John E. Munter, the San Francisco Archdiocese admitted that it had received a complaint about possible abuse in 1977 but that church officials did not adequately investigate.

Attorney Paul Gaspari, who represents the archdiocese, warned not to read too much into the statement.

"It's an acknowledgment of negligence, nothing more or less," he said, declining on elaborate about why the archdiocese made the admission.

But attorney Laurence Drivon, who represents hundreds of people suing the church in California, including one whose case is among those being tried in San Francisco, said the statement is significant.

Drivon said the sexual abuse contributed to his client becoming "a full-blown drug addict by the time he graduated from high school" and living on the streets for months at a time when he was unable to hold down a job.

A jury will be asked to determine whether each plaintiff was harmed, whether the harm was substantially caused by the sex abuse, and, if so, what amount should be awarded in damages. That trial is expected to last three weeks.

In Hayward, meanwhile, jurors heard opening statements in a civil case against the Oakland Diocese for alleged negligence in the case of now-retired Father Robert Ponciroli. He is accused of molesting two brothers even after the diocese had learned that the cleric had sexually abused altar boys.

A lawyer for the two accusers, who were altar boys at the time of the alleged incident, told jurors that his clients were molested by Ponciroli in 1980, five years after an internal church memo shows that the then-bishop of Oakland knew the cleric posed a danger to children and transferred him.

The Oakland Diocese also admitted it was negligent in failing to protect Bob and Tom Thatcher from the priest but urged jurors to award reasonable damages for their suffering.

"What the Thatchers did not know - but what the Diocese of Oakland did know - was that Father Ponciroli was a serial child molester with a documented history of sexually abusing altar boys and other children," said attorney Rick Simons, who represents the Thatchers.

The Hayward case is the first in California to seek punitive damages against the church for abuse alleged under the 2003 state law that revived negligence claims against institutions, such as the church, that failed to protect children from known predators. The church is appealing the punitive damages ruling.

Attorney Allen Ruby, who represents the Oakland Diocese, told jurors the diocese is willing to reasonably compensate the Thatchers for any harm they have suffered, but he rejected calls for the jury to punish the diocese for past negligence with a large punitive damage award.

He said the diocese has changed its ways, initiating training programs to heighten awareness of child molestation within its ranks and creating a board to review sex-abuse complaints involving priests. Oakland Bishop Allen H. Vigneron, who sat in the front row of Alameda County Superior Court Judge Harry R. Sheppard's courtroom, visits a different church each month to apologize to victims, Ruby said.

The first witness, Antioch Police Det. Mary Hooker, told jurors that she and her partner located 15 people who accused Ponciroli of sexually abusing them as children. "At one point, it just became overwhelming," she testified. "The number of victims was too large."

Hooker said she had enough corroborating evidence to charge the retired priest in February 2002 with six felony counts of lewd conduct with a child under 14. The charges were later dropped.

The detective testified that when she first questioned Ponciroli in his Florida home, he admitted that he was a sex addict and prayed for his victims daily.

 
 

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