BishopAccountability.org
	Diocese Nearing Deal with 30 Abuse Claimants Victims Would Get between $100,000 and $600,000 Each under Terms of a Proposed Settlement By Sheryl Kornman Tucson Citizen [Tucson AZ] June 2, 2005 Thirty sexual abuse claimants in the Diocese of Tucson bankruptcy case have reached proposed settlements from $100,000 to $600,000, according to court documents. All 30 are represented by one Tucson law firm. But one attorney has raised concerns about how the confidential process for vetting claims of abuse by priests is being handled. Cave Creek attorney G. David DeLozier said his client's "proof of claim" was rejected because the documents he provided were discounted. He said the panel appointed by a federal judge to review the claims of abuse did not read the papers he filed to support the claim, including a psychologist's report. Bankruptcy Court Judge James Marlar, rejected the argument, saying it had no place in yesterday's hearing on the diocese's revised proposed settlement. The judge suggested DeLozier's client either vote against the final settlement plan later this summer, or take action to oust the creditors' committee. DeLozier said he will continue to try to press his client's case with the diocese's lead Chapter 11 attorney, Susan Boswell. Previously, the panel considering claims of abuse said that 36 of the 103 claims it received by the court's deadline were not credible and 36 others fell outside the statute of limitations. DeLozier said in an interview after the hearing that the issue in his client's case is when his client recalled the abuse. He said what is at stake is many thousands of dollars for a "lifetime of misery." He said his client suffers from repressed memory. The panel rejected that assertion and threw out the claim, he said. DeLozier said his client was sexually abused by a priest while the client was an altar boy at a Phoenix church. (Phoenix did not have its own diocese at the time.) The client is now in an Arizona prison for crimes DeLozier said are related to long-term drug abuse, which he said began after the sexual abuse and continued throughout his adult life. The diocese filed for Chapter 11 protection last September to settle all pending and future claims of sexual abuse. According to the revised diocese proposal, 30 claimants have proposed settlements negotiated by Tucson lawyers Lynne Cadigan and Kim Williamson. Fourteen of the attorneys' clients would get between $425,000 and $600,000 each, under the proposed "tier" plan. The judge is expected to approve those proposed settlements later this month. The new documents no longer include a $20 million settlement fund cap. The diocese now asks that it receive part of a $5 million fund that will be set aside to pay minors or adults with repressed memory who were not able to file claims by the court's April 15 deadline. The diocese wants 20 percent of that settlement pool for victims to go to diocese programs to prevent sexual abuse. Also noted in the updated court papers is a request for the court to approve the hiring of retired Pima County Superior Court Judge Lina Rodriquez. She would serve as a "special master" in the case, hearing cases that were not settled by the creditors' committee and the diocese. Some of those cases could be heard in district court.