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	Catholic Church Settles with Molestation Victims By John Spano Los Angeles Times [Milwaukee WI] September 1, 2006 http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-090106 priest,0,5232767.story?coll=la-story-footer The Roman Catholic Diocese of Milwaukee has agreed to pay eight victims of the late Father Siegfried Widera $13.3 million, ending the litigation against the serial child molester who jumped to his death from the balcony of a hotel in Mexico rather than face criminal charges in the United States. Added to the settlement from a church in California two years ago, the victims will receive a total of $28 million, or a record $3.6 million per plaintiff. Widera was convicted of child molestation in Milwaukee in 1976, then sent to Orange County three years later. But the Milwaukee archdiocese failed to disclose the conviction in a letter to Orange County church officials, saying Widera posed "no great risk." The settlement, along with Milwaukee's decision to release many documents in the cases, was hailed by lawyers for the victims. "This critical term of settlement between the archdiocese and the survivors is an attempt to bring much needed light to the flawed and often tragic decision-making process that permitted perpetrators unfettered access to children," said Katherine K. Freberg, lead lawyer for the victims. Some 560 claims against priests in Los Angeles remain to be resolved; the first is now scheduled for trial in November. Most of Widera's story has been well-documented. Church officials in Orange County conceded that they accepted the Milwaukee priest into their diocese in 1977 despite a vague warning in a letter from then-Archbishop William E. Cousins of Milwaukee that in earlier years Widera had a "moral problem having to do with a boy in school." In fact, he had been convicted in 1973 of molesting a boy. In 1985, after an allegation of sexual abuse in Orange County surfaced, church officials barred Widera from performing priestly duties. He was sent to a Catholic rehabilitation center in New Mexico for treatment, which he never completed. He later became a Tucson businessman. In 2002, when the church's national sex abuse scandal exploded, other victims of Widera came forward and authorities charged him with 42 counts of molestation in Orange County and Milwaukee. That same year, Widera became a fugitive and spent a year on the run, mostly in Mexico. In 2003, Mexican authorities cornered him in Mazatlan and he leaped to his death from a third-floor hotel window. He was 62. According to documents released when the Diocese of Orange entered into a $100-million settlement with abuse victims, what Cousins actually wrote was not only that Widera had a "moral problem having to do with a boy in school," but also that he had a more recent "repetition" and needed to leave the state for legal reasons. "From all the professional information I can gather, there would seem no great risk in allowing this man to return to pastoral work but there are legal complications at present writing," Cousins wrote. "Incidentally, these legal technicalities would permit Father's going to another state as long as treatment is continued." Much of the pretrial maneuvering leading up to the settlement involved an intractable dispute over whether that letter effectively notified California religious authorities of the danger Widera posed. Lawyers for the Milwaukee archdiocese argued that despite the fact that the child molestation conviction was not specified, the letter contained enough warning for California church officials to take precautions. Freberg said Archbishop Thomas Dolan of Milwaukee "directly participated in the negotiations and subsequently met privately with several of Father Widera's victims." john.spano@latimes.com
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