16 church attorneys at one deposition, no questions answered. Hundreds of documents filed each week, most by church, 20 are notices of new counsel

(City of Angels Lady has to take a break. Will be back as soon as possible. May 2, 2007)
***
Document diving last week I was stunned at the amount of pleadings, motions, and notices filed by church attorneys. Going down four screens, with about 30 documents per screen, there were motions to strike, motions to question jurisdiction, and in one stream 17 notices of Association of New Counsel. I was document diving in search of orders signed by the judge, and did find a couple, but they were from hearings at least two weeks back. In January a clerk showed me where paper copies of documents were placed and at that date five file cabinets overflowed into piles on a table in the room. By this week the entire room must be consumed by paper, as are likely the judge and plaintiffs’ attorneys. Where is the order from the judge re the April 12th conference that I’ve been looking for now for weeks?

Tony DeMarco says 16 attorneys showed up when they tried to depose Francis Weber and “Defense counsel completely frustrated plaintiffs’ discovery efforts by repeatedly instructing the witness not to answer.” As I document dive, a few motions on screen two are attempts by plaintiffs to get interrogatories from Weber and others.

And 17, count them, 17 notices of association of new counsel in one afternoon, with more sprinkled in other days. The eyes blur as you try to read them. With hundreds of church attorneys already knocking out motions by the dozen stopping only to word process in different plaintiffs’ names, six church attorneys here a half dozen there flying around the country to depose plaintiffs, why do they need more attorneys?

City of Angels visited the site of “Peter J. Godfrey, Jon Tisdale, Vanessa Hubert & Samantha A. Dolginer of the law firm GILBERT, KELLY, CROWLEY & JENNETT, LLP, (who) have associated as co-counsel for Defendant DOE 1 (Archdiocese: Attorneys Hennigan, et al) With respect to the claims asserted by plaintiff (Insert name here)."

At first glance I thought it was good news. “GKC&J” stress “communication” at their website, even include a little cartoon with lawyer humor. I envisioned plaintiffs and the archbishop meeting over pastry to arrange a national foundation for priest rape survivors, research into psychological effects of clergy rape, the church listening to plaintiffs describe the spiritual and sexual confusion that comes from being raped as a child or adolescent by a priest.

You know, communication. I’ll let GKC&J’s words speak for themselves:

“For over 75 years, Gilbert, Kelly, Crowley & Jennett LLP has earned its reputation by taking a different approach to legal matters.

“We think it’s more important to communicate with our clients, not overwhelm them. We believe intelligence, strategy and skill are what win cases. We also focus on communication to streamline cases, rather than on lawsuits that prolong them and create unwarranted bills.

“Now, in applying this approach for over 75 years (sic), we've discovered that what has earned us a reputation and our clients a successful resolution is a mix of brilliance, a bit of humor, and a healthy dose of humanity.”

Oh goody, I can’t wait. Here is what this latest addition of church attorneys tell you about cases they've won so proudly. Under “Where Experience Gets Results” they list cases they've won:

Appeal by Plaintiff of her racial discrimination lawsuit defeated.

Lawsuit by women claiming discrimination because of their national original/race -- dismissed.

Manager’s claims that he was fired for whistle blowing denied.

Real nice people. They specialize in representing the rich and powerful against pesky lawsuits brought by the little people.

City of Angels will try to keep track of documents as they get filed, to see the effects of this new law firm being added to the clergy cases. But It’s so hard. I found this note to myself in my research:

“I’m getting really confused. On Superior Court website they list documents filed. When you go to Room 106 at the courthouse and read the list of documents filed, they are not the same as the ones listed online.

“Or it could be the documents all changed in the time it took me to ride downtown to the courthouse.”

DOCUMENT DIVING:

I finally found a pleading signed by the judge, for a case last week where the plaintiff and her attorney didn't even show up.

There is a “Motion of Defendant Doe 2 to compel further responses to standardized request for production of documents.”

I don't get this. Request by defendant for documents and another filed by church attorneys for responses to interrogatories by plaintiff? Both are case BC308065. City of Angels Blog will look into this next week.

FIVE in a row: “Special Demurrer and Motion to Quash and Dismiss by the Roman Catholic Bishop” all filed on April 24.

Ah finally almost at the bottom of the second screen (average 30 documents per screen) a motion filed by plaintiffs.

“Support of plaintiffs’ motion to compel deposition answers from MONSIGNOR FRANCIS J. WEBER and for appointment of a discovery referee. (see April 28 post.)

MORE FROM MOTION TO COMPEL DEPOSITION OF WEBER
“This document relates to the following:” Lists 83 plaintiff cases.

Among the exhibits is evidence that Plaintiffs’ counsel attempted to meet and confer on the record with Defendant Archbishop counsel “in order to promptly resolve the issues in dispute.”

DeMarco writes that church attorney objections to questions in Monsignor Weber’s deposition are “Yet another example of discovery abuses committed by defendants. These continuing meritless objections. . .

“frustrate Plaintiffs’ legitimate discovery efforts and result in a waste of judicial resources.”

HERE ARE Excerpts from Weber’s March 13 deposition cited in the Motion to Compel:
BOLD, CENTERED “MENTAL RESERVATION’

Q: Monsignor, you are aware of the doctrine of mental reservation?

WEBER: Yes.

DEMARCO: Can you describe that for me?

WOODS: Same objection.

KNEAFSEY: I am going to -- objection -- instruct the witness not to answer on the same grounds.

DEMARCO: It’s harassing the witness?

KNEAFSEY: Yes.

DEMARCO: Asking him if he understands the Doctrine of Mental Reservation?

KNEAFSEY: It’s a religious doctrine. Judge Fromholz has already ruled that questions of that nature are inappropriate for deposition.

HERE IS AN EXAMPLE OF
Church Contradicting Itself:

BOLD, CENTERED: AWARENESS OF SEXUAL ABUSE

Q: Monsignor Weber, when is the first time you ever became aware that any priest might have had sexual conduct with a minor?

KNEAFSEY: I’m going to object. . . Weber is here today as the Archivist for the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles. The only thing the deposition notice indicated is that he be asked about documents. We are producing Monsignor Weber here today to talk about the documents that were identified in the deposition notice.

DEM: You are basically saying that if we ask Monsignor Q
Weber any questions about any perpetrator here today you are going to object and instruct him not to answer?

KNEAFSEY: No that's not a fair characterization. The order applies to any hierarchy witness of which Monsignor Weber is one.
=================
MAKE UP YOUR MIND, CHURCH ATTORNEYS:
Is he hierarchy or is he just a lowly archivist?
=================
ONE VERY INTERESTING DOCUMENT I FOUND:
Declaration of Dale A. Kelley in support of Motion to compel further answers at deposition.

Kelley is a private investigator who identified himself to a Mr. Parsons and:

“before we asked, he volunteered details of Father Henry Vetter’s history of inappropriate sexual conduct with young boys dating back to the 1940s.

“Told me that Father Ray McDonough a passionist priest in Citrus Heights, California, knew father vetter and might have some information about him. I later contacted Father McDonogugh by phone. He agreed to meet with me to talk.

“However, soon after that conversation I received a telephone call from Donald Stteier. He told me he reps the defendant Passionists--" !!!!
==================
What? Donald Steier there too? This guy shows up everywhere.
What are all those other lawyers doing?

Kelly continued: “(Steier) understood that I was going to take Father McDonough’s statement. I confirmed that and he indicated that he had no objection but that he wanted to be present."

How many attorneys are going to show up with Steier at that deposition?
====================
Four more documents filed by church:
“Answers of defendant doe whatever to Plaintiff’s whatever. . .

The people in Room 106 don't like it when you stay on a machine longer than 20 minutes, gotta run.

More to come. . .
. . .

Motion for Discovery Referee and to compel Roger Mahony to comply with discovery, both hearings May 16th as civil cases prepare for jury trials

***
(Calendar for next week listed below)
***
It takes a court order to get Roger Mahony to comply with discovery law. On May 16th Katherine Freberg asks Judge Haley Fromholz to compel the archbishop to answer interrogatory questions and produce documents needed for the July 9 Hagenbach cases jury trial. In addition plaintiffs request a Discovery Referee in a hearing May 16th as every time plaintiffs try to depose a witness, the church blocks them.

When Mahony did respond he gave this answer to almost every question: “Responding party responds that discovery is just commencing. Based on this, current lack of information responding party must respond that it denies this request.” (Responding party must respond that he does not respond?)

“Plaintiffs have filed numerous motions to compel due to Defense Counsel’s egregious conduct,” writes Tony DeMarco. “Repeatedly defendants have used the tactic of instructing witnesses not to answer appropriate questions designed to illicit information bearing on key elements of plaintiffs’ cases.

“For example plaintiffs have been forced to seek the assistance of this court in order to obtain discovery depositions of:

Monsignor Arthur Lirette
Monsignor Charles O’Gorman
Bishop John Ward
Bishop Juan Arzube
Father George Neville Rucker

Just to name a few.

While church attorneys prevent witnesses from speaking, “Plaintiffs depositions have been taken and plaintiffs have provided supplemental responses to discovery requests,” writes Katherine Freberg.


=============
HEARINGS NEXT WEEK:

NOTE: Mahony Hearings were continued from May 2nd

05/01/2007 at 08:31 am in department 20 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
MOT-COMPEL PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS (MOTION TO COMPEL INTERROGATORIES(PAPERS FILED ON 3/06)**CONT FROM 4/24**RE: BC308065)

05/01/2007 at 08:31 am in department 20 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Hearing on Demurrer (AND MOTION TO QUASH AND DISMISS BY LIAISON COUNSEL(PAPERS FILED ON 3/07)**CONT FROM 4/17**RE: BC308530)

05/01/2007 at 08:31 am in department 20 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Motion to Strike (AND DISMISS COMPLAINT BY DOE-SANTA TERESITA SCHOOL/PARISH(PAPERS FILED ON 3/07)**CONT FROM 4/18**RE: BC308530)

05/01/2007 at 08:31 am in department 20 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Hearing on Demurrer (AND MOTION TO DISMISS(PAPERS FILED ON 3/07)**CONT FROM 4/25**RE: BC299243)

05/02/2007 at 08:31 am in department 20 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Motion to Compel (MOTION TO COMPEL FOR ADMISSION MOTION TO COMPEL DOCUMENTS MOTION TO COMPEL DOCUMENTS SET TWO MOTION TO COMPEL TO STANDARDIZED INTERROGATORIES **CONT TO 5/16**(PAPERS FILED 4/10) RE: BC308294)

05/02/2007 at 08:31 am in department 20 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Motion Hearing (TO UNSEAL DEFENDANT DOE 1'S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT, OR ALTERNA-TIVELY SUMMARY ADJUDICATION;(PAPERS FILED ON 04-03-07)RE: BC308294)

05/02/2007 at 08:31 am in department 20 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Conference-Case Management
----

Tomorrow's blog:
16 church attorneys at one deposition, no questions answered.

In one week, more than 60 documents filed, two of them from plaintiffs, the rest by church attorneys. Several of those documents were “Notice of Association of Counsel” announcing the archdiocese is adding another top-heavy law firm to the hundreds of attorneys already fighting plaintiffs.


More on Hearing May 16

“At the deposition of Monsignor Weber, there were 16 lawyers present," writes Tony DeMarco, "several of whom had traveled great distances to attend. Defense counsel completely frustrated plaintiffs’ discovery efforts by repeatedly instructing the witness not to answer, such that Plaintiffs’ Liaison Counsel was forced to suspend the deposition."


More tomorrow. . .

"I don't recall, I don't recall" a sure sign he's lying, whether it's a Bushie or a bishop

*****
Reading a monsignor’s deposition in January his answer was “I don't recall, I don't recall,” to almost every question. At the same time, the US Attorney General was on the news testifying, “I don't recall, I don't recall” to almost every question in the US Senate.

Then last week a Bishop Brom deposition came up and to almost every question Brom replied, “I don't recall, I don't recall.” Again, as I was reading, there was Gonzales on the news saying “I don't recall, I don't recall.” Literally, the words “I don't recall, I don't recall” hit my head from the computer screen and the TV screen at the same time, both times.

It’s not a coincidence when you think about it, more like a clue. The "bad guys" in Washington and Texas, as well as in The Vatican and LA, have twisted the integrity that comes with power so much, they can say under oath I don't remember or I don't recall; because obviously who’s ever going to know you're lying? It’s the ultimate Teflon. No matter how obvious the crime, as long as you say, I don't remember, no one will ever know if you do or you don’t.

Like kids saying, I’m not a liar. I’m not lying right now.

Since beginning to write on this issue, it’s been obvious to me, God has a sense of humor. I mean when a perp priest has a name like “Wempe” or as in my case, Father Horne. . . . to me that’s a clue from God to find humor in all of this stuff or you won’t be able to handle it.

Just like he sends clues as to who you can trust, based on similarities in the way criminals answer questions under oath. And he uses timing, a basic storytelling technique, to help us figure out who the bad guys are.

The monsignors and bishops are right up there with Bush’s hand-picked advisors in terms of fraud, deceit, and corruption.

It’s just a matter of time.

=========

(City of Angels apologizes, but could not make it to hearings this morning, as daughter “moved back in” at 3:15 AM.)

More To Come. . . . >

When to start statute of limitations when victim represses memory of crime for decades and other topics at pre-trial hearings re LA Archdiocese

. . . .
As Clergy Case hearings began this morning Judge Fromholz knocked back motions to strike by the church and at one point tempers got short. Tony DiMarco stepped up to say, “Your honor, we provided those certificates and we aren’t getting served when motions are filed.”

Lee Potts jumped in: “We did what's required.” Di Marco returned: “It wasn’t faxed, emailed, mailed, personally delivered.” Judge Fromholz literally threw his hands up in the air saying, “This is an argument for another day.”

He was about to grant a motion to strike and dismiss in another case when plaintiff attorney Tim Hale stepped up, “Your Honor, this is a case of clear repressed memory. Hightower is so off point in this case.” And the judge said, “Okay, we'll take it under submission.”

The hearings over, DiMarco bristled, and stayed in his seat. He was waiting for Donald Woods church attorney to show up. DiMarco had a deposition with Monsignor R the next day in Santa Barbara only now Woods is arguing he has to file a privacy claim on behalf of Monsignor R first.

So DiMarco sits in court with a stack “this thick” of printed emails and other proof that the church is not cooperating. And church attorney Woods does not show up. DiMarco says, “I’m going to have an ex parte with the judge.”

Three other church attorneys hover over DiMarco making excuses for Woods, “He’s at a doctor’s appointment,” “He’s going to file privacy papers anyway.” DiMarco mutters he’s been trying to get this deposition for months. Finally Lee Potts says, “I can argue anything,” they confer in chambers, and DiMarco takes off with a signed order to depose the Monsignor in Santa Barbara Wednesday.

===========

DOCUMENT DIVING

And bringing up repressed memories

Down in room 106 I look up the Santa Barbara repressed memory case. Hale wrote:

"The Perpetrator's death in April 2002 ultimately ended Plaintiff’s repression of the memories.

"He began trying to recall his good memories of spending time with the Perpetrator. Much to Plaintiff’s shock and dismay, his efforts began to bring back memories of the Perp’s abuse. Ultimately plaintiff was unable to work.

“At one point the Plaintiff found himself having driven to the mountains above Santa Barbara screaming the perpetrator’s name and asking why and how this man he completely trusted could have done this to him.”

(I know what that's like. Therapists told me for years, your brain won’t give you more than you can handle. Repressed memories come in when you are ready for them.

(A jarring event can bring up memories. In 1997 after an encounter with the woman I know murdered my father but the sheriff couldn't prove it, I was sitting on the motel room bed with a remote control in my hand and suddenly I was in Father Horne’s rectory at age five. The whole room filled with it.

(Then last weekend, all of a sudden again, I’m in Father Horne’s rectory at age five only this time dancing. . . .and now I understand where some of my weirdest compulsions came from, that one time, with Father Horne, that I remembered just last Saturday night, after writing about these cases since January.

(In both cases my brain’s capacity for horror had to expand first before the thoughts and memories could come in.

(But how do you fix a time to start a statute of limitations when a person doesn't remember the crime for decades? And then the memories take another couple decades to revive?

(What do you do? You blog.)
==========

MORE FROM the Santa Barbara Case file:
“This law firm has been litigating childhood sexual abuse cases against various California entities of the Roman Catholic church including these defendants since 1998," wrote Tim Hale.

“Defendants have never asserted that schools or parishes were somehow separate and independent entities themselves, nor that they had been ‘held in trust for the parishioners’ by defendants as their counsel now assert."

PERPETRATOR in this case if Father Matthew Kelly, deceased

This case may has been thrown out today?

JUDGE: I’ll take it under submission.

===========

Another version of
CITY OF ANGELS
Winging It Transcripts

Re Motions to Strike from April 24, 2007, hearing:

JUDGE: You may not be aware of it --

POTTS: (bursts out laughing)

JUDGE: I’ve had a constant stream of motions to dismiss based on certificates of merit.

DIMARCO: We'll raise it in a different context.

JUDGE: Mr. Potts, there was another one taken off calendar last week because of the same arguments.

DIMARCO: We had provided them with an answer, we had provided those certificates some time back and reprovided them again and Mr. Potts was cordial enough to take the motion off yesterday -- it wasn’t for a lack of diligence.

JUDGE: Please be mindful of that gentlemen.

MORE TO COME. . .

Court sets guidelines re mental exams & docs; church to produce files for in camera review, in civil cases re pedophile priests, Cardinal Mahony

=====
Two court orders last week set precedents for the hundreds of cases to follow re mental exams and production of files, as the first jury trial approaches June 11 in LA civil cases against the Roman Catholic Church.

Judge Haley Fromholz granted the church’s motion for a mental examination of plaintiff Pepito in the April 18 hearing, saying his decision on this exam applies to the “numerous coordinated cases” defendant is litigating in California. The previous day in the same case, Fromholz ordered seminary files of Lynn Caffoe to be produced for in camera review in the Pepito & Uranga case set for jury trial August 6.

The church has to produce seminary files, in Pepito & Uranga and future cases, but for in camera review by the judge before being released to plaintiffs’ attorneys.

Remember:

(“Judge Haley Fromholz stared at Katherine Freberg and said, “I don't want to review anything I don't absolutely have to.” See April 17 post.)


Precedents for upcoming cases.

Regarding mental examinations: “In light of the fact defendant is litigating numerous coordinated cases in California, often involving plaintiffs who live in other states or countries” it would be too difficult for defendant (the church) to find doctors in all those locales. So plaintiffs have to come to LA for these mental exams, all expenses paid by the church."

(Can’t think of a better reason to travel to LA than for an exam with a church shrink.)

“The Court finds good cause to order Plaintiff to travel to California for his medical examination, at Defendant’s expense as required by 2032.320(e) (2).”

MORE ON
Compelling the Church to Release Documents.

As I was document diving today I found this order filed on March 6, 2007:

Court order “for documents produced by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department pursuant to a subpoena duces tecum proprounded by counsel for plaintiff ‘relating to George Neville Rucker’”

For Case BC307410 Ballard Vs doe 1

The documents contain “redactions of Mr. Rucker’s home address: 000010, 11, 1n3 13.

"The privacy objections of Mr. Rucker are otherwise overruled. There appear to be no grounds for privacy objections as to third parties."

Liaison Counsel to give notice.

More to come. . .
----------
What was said at April 18th hearing on motion to compel mental examination

By City of Angels Winging It Transcripts

In attendance for the plaintiffs are Tony DiMarco and Katherine Freberg, for the defendants Phillip Baker, Donald Woods, and Melissa Fink of Baker, Keener & Nahra.

JUDGE: Grants the motion for mental examination, including conditions in the form of preparation and where the deposition taken..

FREBERG: One other issue. Re scope or duration of the exam. Their expert says he needs more than two days to do the exam. They identified 20 plus tests that need to be done, “subjective tests.” I’ve never had a defense mental exam take this long…

FINK: Defense is also concerned about the fact that many, many tests must be done to assess these claims. To set a limit on the exam is bad precedent as some will be shorter than others.

WOODS: Not all the exams. He’s not going to give all of them, he’s going to give all applicable. It lists every mental disorder conceivable even brain damage, physiological, and we're just looking at mental tests here --

The exam is not likely to go three days but if it’s not done in two days it could go a little more…

DI MARCO: I’ve done these and they shouldn't take longer than a day.

JUDGE: I trust Defendant won’t take too long but I'm not going to set a time limit on a mental examination.

“It is not my place to do so.

“If they take unduly long make a motion, -- but I'm reluctant to set limits beforehand, so deny that.

BAKER: Conditions, how serious is the issue of conditions and how much do they want to prepare for psychology exams? We don’t want them to prep with psychologists.

JUDGE: Then that's a subject for cross examination…

Almost everyone gets up and leaves but still a few plaintiff attorneys on the right.

And Lee Potts, liaison attorney for the defense, sits curled up in the back row on the left, his fist at his lips, his legs crossed around a briefcase -- pensive and bent up like a pretzel.

Potts squirms as he’s delivering litigation in front of the judge. In fact, the way Lee Potts’ brain always seems to be going faster than the rest of us is remarkably like personality afflictions I’ve seen so often in victims of this crime, ephebophile or pedophile priest rape.

In fact it’s a characteristic of persons with PTSD to always go faster than the speed of everyone around you, like Lee Potts does, and I do, and so many survivors do.

With Lee Potts I get the same feeling as I got only for a moment last week with Phil Baker. He’s on the wrong side and he knows it. But with Potts I sense the dusty intensity of a studio in a cluttered townhouse somewhere in LA. This man embroils himself in his work and goes fast as he can, not stopping to note the plaintiffs crying on the other side of the courtroom.

I know, I know, in America even the worst criminals deserve attorneys and a defense.

But do defense attorneys have to pretend to be on OJ Simpson's dream team?


More to come. . .>

9 Hearings Next Week, As Civil Cases Against Roman Catholic Archdiocese / Cardinal Mahony Aproach Jury Trials

Case Summary

Case Number: JCCP4286
THE CLERGY CASES I

Filing Date: 01/02/2003
Case Type: Judicial Council Coord Proceeding (General Jurisdiction)
Status: Pending

Coordinated Case(s): BC293650 on 07/24/2003
Coordinated Case(s): BC308528 on 01/03/2005
-----------------------------------------------
Future Hearings

04/24/2007 at 08:31 am in department 20 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Hearing on Demurrer (AND MOTION TO QUASH AND DISMISS(PAPERS FILED ON 3/07)RE: BC306507)

04/24/2007 at 08:31 am in department 20 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Hearing on Demurrer (AND MOTION TO QUASH AND DISMISS(PAPERS FILED ON 3/07)RE: BC308213)

04/24/2007 at 08:31 am in department 20 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Hearing on Demurrer (AND MOTION TO QUASH AND DIMSISS(PAPERS FILED ON 3/07)**CONT TO 5/23**RE: BC308556)

04/24/2007 at 08:31 am in department 20 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
DEMURRER ((PAPERS FILED ON 3/07)**CONT FROM 4/17**RE: BC304904)

04/24/2007 at 08:31 am in department 20 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
MOT-COMPEL PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS (MOTION TO COMPEL INTERROGATORIES(PAPERS FILED ON 3/06)CONT FROM 4/04RE: BC308065)

04/24/2007 at 08:31 am in department 20 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Hearing on Demurrer (AND MOTION TO QUASH AND DISMISS(PAPERS FILED ON 3/07)**O/C PER MOVING PARTY**RE: BC307672)

04/24/2007 at 08:31 am in department 20 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Hearing on Demurrer (AND MOTION TO QUASH AND DISMISS(PAPERS FILED ON 3/07)RE: BC1156450)

04/25/2007 at 08:31 am in department 20 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
DEMURRER (AND MOTION TO STRIKE(PAPERS FILED ON 3/07)**CONT TO 5/30**RE: BC291179)

04/25/2007 at 08:31 am in department 20 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Hearing on Demurrer (BY ARCHDIOCESE OF LA AND DOE 2(PAPERS FILED ON 3/07)RE: BC307342)

04/25/2007 at 08:31 am in department 20 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Motion to Compel (FURTHER ANSWERS AT DEPOSITION(PAPERS FILED ON 4/18)RE: BC292901)

04/25/2007 at 08:31 am in department 20 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Hearing on Demurrer (AND MOTION TO DISMISS(PAPERS FILED ON 3/07)RE: BC299243)

04/25/2007 at 08:31 am in department 20 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Hearing on Demurrer (AND MOTION TO QUASH AND DISMISS(PAPERS FILED ON 3/07)**CONT FROM 4/17**RE: BC291941)

PLUS

12 motions to strike denied today and Mahony's answers say "nothing" in civil cases against church re pedophile priests

=================
"Nothing. They're doing nothing," a plaintiff attorney said to me last week and another one said it this morning, "Nothing." The church ignores interrogatories for months, makes empty excuses to delay discovery, is a no-show for depositions that plaintiffs need for trials this summer.

Roger Mahony, cardinal of Los Angeles, finally responds to interrogatories. . . and says nothing.

There were tears of relief in court this morning when the judge denied 12 motions to strike in cases concerning George Neville Rucker. One family of survivors was in court and heard their names read into the record twice by their attorney Arthur Goldberg and by Judge Haley Fromholz.

On the left in the back is a church attorney who I keep seeing, I think he’s with Hennigan. He has a rubbery face; James Spader could play him. He looks like he might be a proud founding member of Young Republicans.

Then just to my left is church attorney Donald Woods, lips tight as he reads the judge’s tentative order and shakes his head. He’s this little leprechaun like guy who whenever I see him I think of my Irish relatives in Chicago. He looks up at me over his reading glasses as I’m typing into my laptop describing him. I smile and keep describing him. He smiles, sort of.

Next to Woods, Phil Baker, church attorney, slowly lifts his eyes and I swear I think he’s beginning to realize he’s on the wrong side in these cases -- he wants to burst out of here, forget the yacht and the acreage he’s about to buy with archdiocese money. He looks at me, he looks at the tentative from the judge, where he’s just been ripped a new one . . .

It’s Okay, Mr. Baker, come over to the right side of the court. It’s not too late. You don’t want to spend eternity with the guy from Young Republicans whose face keeps changing. Bring your little leprechaun friend Mr. Woods with you, stop representing the church.

Bring me the story, bring me the story, bring me the story…

=================

12 Motions to Strike Denied Today

Maybe that's why Phil Baker, church attorney, looked sheepish.

Over and over again church attorneys try to use the period of time when cases were stayed, from 2004 to 2006, like a fishpond packed with missed deadlines. Church attorneys throw in their lines and pull up any case from the hundreds that were stayed during that period and of course they find documents that weren’t filed while the cases were stayed.

There are more than a hundred of these useless motions to strike, quash, dismiss, slap plaintiffs in the face, in the clergy case files since November 2006, most of them a regurgitation of these arguments that certificates of merit should have been filed by this date or that date.

In almost every case the judge has come back with the same answer. So what?

As he denied another bundle of church motions to strike, Judge Fromholz wrote: “Plaintiff filed amended certificates. The Court found reason and and meritorious cause for filing the actions based on review of the certificates and granted leave to serve.

“The Court finds that Plaintiff’s failure to file amended certificates of merit within 20 days of March 23, 2004, is not ground for dismissal of this action.

“The Court has explained in numerous prior orders that certificates may be amended.”

=======

Here is how today's hearing went in court

By City Of Angels Winging It Transcripts

CHURCH ATTORNEY: Phil Baker for, uh, education and welfare “corp”

JUDGE FROMHOLZ: Tentative is to deny

CA: I’ve argued this and lost before I won’t do it again.

JF: That would apply to all of them

Baker’s body language as he leaves court is depressed, his eyes look from side to side and his face is bleak.

Come over to the light, Mr. Baker, come over to the right side of the courtroom, sit with the plaintiffs, Mr. Baker.

Bring me the story, bring me the story…

==============

HOW ROGER MAHONY ANSWERS INTERROGATORIES

Copy and paste paragraph from first year law correspondence course here.

It’s hard to imagine how so many attorneys, working for one big defendant can accomplish so little, but here are the answers it took Roger Mahony from July 2006 to March 2007 to come up with in response to court ordered interrogatories:

Interrogatory # 1.

For each year from 1930 to the present identify each employee who was accused or suspected

MAHONY: Responding party objects to this request. It’s broad, burdensome, harassing, not relevant. Violates religion clause of First Amendment, physician patient privilege, laywer client privilege, and (don’t forget) work product doctrine.

Interrogatory # 2:

Provide dates of the above.

MAHONY: Responding party objects to this request. It’s broad, burdensome, harassing, not relevant. Violates religion clause of First Amendment, physician patient privilege, laywer client privilege, and (don’t forget) work product doctrine.

(Copy and paste answer from above and same to interrogatories 3 and 4.)

Interrogatory # 5:

Describe with particularity ALL efforts taken by YOU to identify any EMPLOYEES who were sexually attracted to minors.

MAHONY: Responding party objects (copy and paste) clergy privilege blah-blah-blah

Interrogatory #7:

For each accused individual identified describe each report made to any law enforcement agency by YOU RELATING TO alleged or suspected SEXUAL MISCONDUCT with any minor(s).

MAHONY: Responding party objects: religion clause, clergy privilege, psychotherapist-pt privilege -blah-blah-blah

You get the picture.

THESE ANSWERS SAY NOTHING

The church is doing and saying

. . . Nothing . . .

Oh wait here's something different.

Interrogatory #20:

Identify each of your employees who lived with the Perpetrator at any time at every residence provided to the perpetrator by YOU:

MAHONY: Monsignor (next three lines blacked out) lived with Hagenbach at St. Joseph.

The Supplemental response lists 11 priests with their names blacked out.

Interrogatory # 24:

Describe all documents that show you knew that the perpetratory had engaged in sexual misconduct.

MAHONY: (2 paragraphs of cut and pasted objections.)

They say nothing. The church is doing and saying nothing.
========

More Document Diving in Room 106

BC307682 IS JIM ROBERTSON’S CASE!!!!!

Jim Robertson has long been my hero in pedo-priest rape survivor land. Here's why:

June 27, 2005
Man Arrested in Protest During Mass at Cathedral
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
By David Pierson, Times Staff Writer
A man protesting the Los Angeles Archdiocese's handling of the clergy sexual abuse scandal was arrested Sunday after he handcuffed himself to the chair used by Cardinal Roger Mahony during 10 a.m. Mass.
The incident happened while Mahony was standing a few feet away at the altar and had just delivered a homily to 2,500 congregants about how the archdiocese is dealing with the controversy.
The protester, James C. Robertson, 58, of Mount Washington, was part of a group of about 200 victims and their supporters who had demonstrated outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels by tying crime scene tape around themselves and the church's perimeter.

It looks like something is happening with Jim Robertson’s case.

Another firm of church attorneys has been added to BC307682 Jim Robertson’s case.

To do nothing?????

More to come…..

============

PS - PERSONAL RANT

(This was for me a self esteem building day as two, no three, plaintiff attorneys introduced themselves to me, eagerly shaking my hand, smiling. This never happened to me in all my professional life. After I’d been on a job for a month or two word would start to get around, and the eager handshakes would turn to backs turned in my face.

(In fact I like to joke, I never held a job longer than one year -- except at NASA, and that's only because it took them three years to fire me….I lost every job I had because of my weird sexual behavior, and I’ve spent most my life feeling like I have a layer of grime all over me.

(This morning with plaintiffs outnumbering church attorneys, there were more smiles like mine with teeth missing, more shabby clothes, I felt more like I fit in. Before court started while most attorneys were studying tentatives from the judge a couple of us were going on all animated about the way they used sign language in the movie Babel -- I love L.A.

(Plus I’ve been around these hearings now four months and people still talk to me. On the red line riding home I thought about how at NASA I was the only person in a huge employee cafeteria sitting at a table alone at lunch each day. The way people reacted to me today, this is personal growth, but I digress….)

My story is at cityofangels1.blogspot.com

More to come.....

Church attorneys stall again, still no Caffoe files from St. John's; will Roger Mahony testify in pedophile priest civil case hearings?

It’s getting nasty. No, it’s getting OJ Simpsonian, as church attorneys throw obstructions in the face of plaintiffs and LA’s 500 plus civil cases against the archdiocese battle toward justice. A motion to compel Roger Mahony to answer interrogatories is on calendar for a May 16 hearing.

Mahony’s tactics seemed to leave the judge and others stunned today. After stalling since last summer, church attorneys now announce the only way they'll turn over St. John’s Seminary files on Lynn Caffoe is with the judge's review in camera first.

Judge Haley Fromholz stared at Katherine Freberg and said, “I don't want to review anything I don't absolutely have to.”

The Church Attorney held his fingers up in Freberg’s face and said “The Seminary file is that thick.”

JUDGE: Should they be produced to the court or for Mrs. Freberg?

CHURCH ATTORNEY: To the court for balance. Seminary and personnel files should be produced only in camera because of right to privacy. That's what happened in Clergy III

Judge Fromholz appeared to sigh.

JUDGE: I think we'll look further at it.

So after Freberg’s relentless pursuit of St. John’s Seminary files on Lynn Caffoe the issue is stalled, awaiting another order from Judge Fromholz who mumbled as the attorneys walked away, “It’s not like it’s Freberg versus tenant…”

The church attorney (whose name I didn't get but does it matter? They're interchangeable) continued: “The problem we're having is Freberg’s firm is filing motions to compel for every document. They filed two more last week and unless they see a down side in filing motions to compel..."

. . .

City of Angels Lady went down to Room 106 after the hearing and did find one, not two, one Motion to Compel filed by Katherine Freberg last week, and it was not redundant about documents.

=======

Motion To Compel Mahony to Respond to Questions

Answers so far have been “evasive or incomplete” writes Freberg.

Freberg wants Roger Mahony to answer questions in the Pepito & Uranga Case so we can find out whether it’s true as Mahony has said that “the known incidents of abuse were few in number and generally perceived not to be indicative of a pattern.”

BACKGROUND:

August 17 2006 the court ordered Mahony to respond to Interrogatories 1 through 8 and even allowed the archbishop to limit his answers to the period 1965 to 1982. The court overruled the archdiocese’s objections and ordered archbishop to answer interrogatories as written.

December 15, 2006, Freberg writes, the archbishop served “unverified” responses --

On January 19, 2007, Freberg asked verification as the archbishop’s responses had been unsworn.

She requested same in letters February 1, 6, 12, March 7, April 2 and finally submitted motion to compel on April 12 because “to date, none of these documents have been received.”

Date of hearing on Motion to Compel Testimony of Roger Mahony: May 16, jury trial date for Pepito & Uranga, August 7, 2007.

--------------

BACKGROUND ON ST. JOHN’S SEMINARY:

More to come in future blog posts...

St. John's Seminary College produced pedophile priests and turned them out on the parishes of Southern California for 40 years. On its secluded grounds on the Ventura coast, the men groomed each other over generations, starting in the late 1950s. G. Patrick Ziemann arrived in 1963, the year after Mahony graduated. William J. Levada (St. John’s Class of 1958) was Ziemann’s “boss” as archbishop of San Francisco.

Over the decades St. John's Seminary went on to produce these documented pedophile priests:

Lynn Caffoe
George Neville Rucker
Carl M. Sutphin
John H. Dawson
Franklin Buckman
Clinton Vincent Hagenbach
Matthew H. Kelly

Katherine Freberg has been trying to get files on Caffoe since the judge ordered them turned over in August.

Any day now we should be seeing a Discovery Referee in the LA Clergy Cases.
More to come…

Stall tactics, needless pleadings, as church tries to strike Rucker cases and avoid production of documents in pedophile priest civil hearings

======================

Hearings next week reveal the ongoing battle as church attorneys try to get cases thrown out of court and set up roadblocks to cases in progress. Meanwhile plaintiff attorneys have to file motions over and over again to get the church to turn over documents that have already been ordered produced by this court.

Thursday morning Judge Haley Fromholz declared more than 70 cases ready to be combined for jury trials. His upcoming order will detail the calendar of additional trials. Liaison attorneys from both sides met in chambers Thursday in a status conference. These 70-plus cases, where discovery has progressed since November, will likely go to trials before December.

Church attorneys are stalling a case that is set for jury trial August 6, 2007. In the “Pepito & Uranga” case in a hearing April 17 plaintiff attorney Katherine Freberg requests a court order “compelling the custodian of records of St. John’s Seminary, Monsignor Helmut Hefner, to produce documents requested of him at a deposition which documents the deponent failed to produce.”

Judge Fromholz ordered the entire St. Johns Seminary file turned over last year in cases regarding prolific pedophile priest Lynn Caffoe.


MOTION TO COMPEL PLAINTIFF TO SEE DEFENSE PSYCHIATRIST
8 months late, church attorneys decide they need mental examination from plaintiff

Instead of complying with subpoenas and turning over documents from St. Johns in case #BC307225, church attorneys filed a motion on March 13th ordering the plaintiff to get a mental examination by a defense psychiatrist. The hearing on this motion to compel a mental examination is on calendar for the day after Freberg’s motion to compel these same attorneys to turn over St. John’s Seminary files, April 18.

Hennigan Bennett & Dorman filed this 11th hour demand for the plaintiff to see their psychiatrist because last July plaintiff said in a deposition that he had been on medication and in treatment for a variety of mental and physical ailments as a result of being raped by a priest.

In plaintiff’s answers in interrogatories he lists about 50 psychological and physical ailments he’s lived with most his life such as stomach problems, alcohol and other addictions, trust issues, guilt, isolation and disgust, anger managements issues, low self esteem, self destructive behavior.

(Sounds like a post I or some other survivor wrote one day any day on a priest rape survivor message board…)

Hennigan's church attorneys say they can't prepare for trial now in April 2007 “or evaluate Plaintiff’s claim without a defense mental evaluation,” writes Church attorney Donald Woods, since plaintiff mentioned in deposition July 6 2006 that he’s seen doctors for these problems and has been on medication.

Why didn't they think of that in August?

So the day after Freberg asks attorneys in BC307225 to turn over documents from St. John’s, church attorneys will be demanding this mental examination of one of the plaintiffs in BC307225.

Sounds like stalling, curve-ball throwing, last-minute diversions to me.

STATUS CONFERENCE TURNS 70 PLUS CASES OVER FOR TRIAL

More than 70 cases will be combined and set for jury trial before December as a result of liaison attorneys for plaintiffs and defendants meeting in chambers with Judge Haley Fromholz Thursday morning.

The status conference April 12 drew 20 to 25 attorneys to the courthouse, including old man Hennigan himself, towering with his bony face, white hair, and bow tie over a gaggle of a dozen or so church attorneys. Fromholz heard about 15 other civil cases with an unusually heavy calendar in the hour before the status conference.

Tony DeMarco and Ray Boucher were the main lawyers there for plaintiffs but there were two or three others.


Church attorneys outnumbered plaintiff attorneys about three to one.

====

(City of Angels Lady wants to take an aside here to say I’m so green, so new at this, so gushy still at people who I think of as celebrity attorneys in these cases. I was talking to one this morning and had a great opportunity to ask critical questions like a real journalist. Instead I was all gah-gah -- now I have to wait for the judge’s order to come online and read what happened at the status conference.

(So I promise to get more professional and relaxed by the time jury trials start this June. Right now I’m having trouble figuring out how to be right-sized, figuring out where I fit in this story as it unravels - plus I have all those compulsions of my own from living in the mania of nympho all my adult life as a result of being raped at age five by Father Thomas Barry Horne in Bartlett Illinois {1953 to 54}.

(So I find myself one of the only females among all this testosterone of men in suits, powerful men, and some of them even connected to the church. I have to beat down my own beasts while I’m trying to take on the persona of a journalist and help get this story out. I hope more professional journalists will cover these cases by this summer when hearings begin. Meanwhile I’m growing into my shoes and finding my size so I can get it right.

(So, even though I should have the whole story today, news about the new upcoming jury trials as a result of Thursday morning’s status conference will be on this blog next week.)

There should be an order from Fromholz in the next few days outlining the calendar of new trials that combine these 70-plus cases.

=================

Church attorneys are trying to stymie plaintiffs with one stall, one 11th hour harassment after another -- putting off the inevitable.

LIKE FILING MOTION TO STRIKE, MOTION TO STRIKE, MOTION TO STRIKE…

The Baker & Baker law firm, representing various parties in the Los Angeles Archdiocese, filed a whirlwind of motions to strike on March 7th, mostly cases represented by Arthur Goldberg for victims of pedophile priest George Neville Rucker. Goldberg’s firm Working People’s Law Center is in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles.

One of these cases under attack by Baker & Baker was in a lot of news stories in 2003, a family in Los Angeles with three daughters all raped by the same priest George Neville Rucker.

There is a string of cases where Rucker raped young girls and sometimes young boys while at St. Anthony’s school and parish in El Segundo in the early 1960s and then in 1967 at St. Agatha’s school and parish in Los Angeles not far from El Segundo at 2646 S. Mansfield Ave.

Rucker is one of many priests who was released from prison in 2003 when the Stogner decision erased the criminal convictions from decades back. Today he is in his eighties living somewhere in Los Angeles in a priest retirement home.

One of the cases church attorneys are trying to get thrown out in a hearing April 18th involves the Kennedy family, three daughters and a mother. Jackie Dennis, one of the daughters, was a spokeswoman for local survivors in 2003, quoted in numerous news articles when the civil case filings began.

Her case is especially alarming to me, because in my family there were three sisters and Father Horne got to two of us, but he liked them younger. He dumped my older sister when she turned 9 or 10 and came after me at age five.

The Kennedy cases, along with the cases of several other women who’ve filed through Arthur Goldberg for molestation by Father Rucker, are under attack by Baker & Baker with motions to strike, where church attorneys ask Judge Fromholz to throw out the entire cases, now, four years after they were filed and months before they are set for jury trial.

DONALD WOODS SOUNDS JUST LIKE LEE POTTS IN ENDLESS MOTIONS TO STRIKE

Word Processed paragraphs from church attorneys in two different firms are interchangeable.

Baker & Baker’s argument is eerily similar to the motions to strike filed by Lee Potts against cases he’s handling for Hennigan et al.

Baker & Baker’s Donald Woods signed several of these motions filed March 7th.

AND CHURCH ATTORNEYS CITE CIVIL CODE 340 NON-COMPLIANCE AS REASON FOR MOTIONS TO STRIKE,

Even as they try and fail over and over again to prove 340 isn’t constitutional in appeal after appeal

In these motions set for hearing April 17 like so many other Motions to Strike, no matter by which firm, church attorneys argue that certificates of merit were originally filed on each defendant separately instead of on each individual defendant.

Apparently in the months and weeks before the year long window to file civil suits closed in 2003, plaintiffs filed cases against unnamed “Does.” In almost all these cases plaintiffs filed amended complaints within months, even weeks, naming the defendants, and in some cases defendants are still unnamed.

When the Doe Defendant is identified the certificate of merit gets served. Simple. But church attorneys have latched onto this tiny detail and used it as a reason to file motion after motion to strike.

One after the other motions to strike, filed by Hennigan or by Baker, it doesn't matter, use this same argument that certificates of merit weren’t timely under civil code 340. Defendants weren’t served right away they were served later.

MOOT POINTS BEING ARGUED OVER AND OVER AGAIN THANKS TO CHURCH ATTORNEY STALL TACTICS

The Certificate Of Merit issue has already been decided in plaintiffs’ favor.

Judge Fromholz threw out 10 of these motions to strike recently denying motions filed by the church through demurrers using this same argument, because plaintiffs showed they had filed the certificates of merit naming one “Doe” defendant “MF” under circumstances almost exactly like the rest of the cases in Baker and Hennigan’s motions to strike.

In an April 4 order Judge Fromholz wrote:

“The original complaint did not name MP as a defendant but plaintiff filed a First Amended Complaint (a few months later) in which MP was added, so motion denied….”

So (if City of Angels understands this correctly), these motions to strike and more motions to strike are just another stall tactic on the part of church attorneys. Their arguments about certificates of merit being filed wrong are a waste of time and energy --

Church attorneys use their endlessly deep archdiocese pockets to force plaintiffs to fight motions that have actually already been decided.

Just like plaintiffs have to file motions to compel deposition and production of documents -- the church is stalling, trying to put off the inevitable.

In the end the archdiocese will pay for its decades of neglect, aiding and abetting, protection of assets over children --

MORE IS TO BE REVEALED

In Documents from St. John's Seminary

In documents plaintiff attorneys have been able to get on Fr. Lynn Caffoe so far, his educators wrote that he “spent too much time with a chosen few.” And “there should be someone to keep an eye on his extra-curricular activities.” (From Campbell Decl. Exhibit D)

Re the motion to compel Katherine Freberg wrote: “It would be incongruous to hold in these cases that minor victims of sexual abuse should not be allowed discovery of information about the perpetrators who sexually abused them. “

Freberg adds that records relating to a perpetrators’ education and training revealed critical evidence in clergy cases in Orange County last year.


City of Angels Lady will be at the hearings both April 17 and 18, barring unexpected interventions, so watch this blog next week to see whether Judge Fromholz grants or denies this motion to compel deposition and production of documents by plaintiff, and motion to compel an examination of plaintiff by a defense psychiatrist.

St. John’s seminary produced the following known pedophile priests:

Caffoe
Rucker
Sutphin
Dawson
Buckman
Hagenbach
Kelly

Names we'll all get familiar with over the next year, unfortunately.

CHURCH STALL TACTICS ONE MOTION AFTER ANOTHER

"They're not doing anything," said one plaintiff attorney of the church

Since the judge ordered the entire St. Johns Seminary files turned over last summer in the Caffoe cases, this April 17 hearing shouldn't even have to take place. Plaintiffs should have had these files last summer. The church waited until four days before the last deposition of Monsignor Helmut Hefner from St. Johns to let Plaintiffs know they weren’t going to bring anything with them.

Because of church attorneys applying one stall tactic after another it’s taking until mid-April to even get before Judge Fromholz to get an order to produce.

BLATANT TRUTHS JUST UP THE STREET

Archdiocese Homeless Outreach Center Half Block Away from Superior Court

The Superior Court building where these hearings and trials take place the next months is half a block away from the Archdiocese Homeless Outreach office. Here thanks to the benevolence of the church, Los Angeles poor and housing challenged can come to get a ride somewhere else twice a day to get fed by other organizations.

You can see the great job the Los Angeles Archdiocese and Cardinal Roger Mahony are doing with this outreach to the homeless by going just a few blocks down the hill into town to Skid Row.

2,750 plus people sleep nearby on the sidewalks

Iust blocks from the archdiocese homeless program LAPD did a census and in one night found more than 2,750 people sleeping in the street -- in boxes, doorways, or just on the sidewalk.

When these cases bring out the assets of the church those who aren’t yet horrified may realize that the billions of dollars in assets the church in Los Angeles has amassed in the last decades are what the Cardinal and others in heirarchy were protecting at the expense of young boys and girls being raped by pedophile priests.

The church transferred these sick priests to new parishes rather than expose the epidemic of pedophilia in the church to the public mainly to protect the billions of dollars in assets they amassed, while more than 2,750 individuals moved into boxes and blankets on sidewalks, just blocks from the archdiocese homeless outreach program.

On any given night about 2,750 individuals sleep on sidewalks in Los Angeles -- blocks away from the archdiocese's storefront Homeless Outreach Center

They do about as good a job with the poor as they did with us, the kids sexualized by priests and turned out into the world to seek the ruin of souls, to use the Catholics own words.

My story is at cityofangels1.blogspot.com/

More to come next week.

Church invades plaintiffs’ privacy, evades questions, ignores subpoenas, and keeps trying to have it both ways in Pedophile-Pederast Priest Rape Cases

=============
Graphic words about plaintiffs' sex lives are now available online for anyone to read, thanks to defense exhibits filed by church attorneys in March. Showing flagrant disregard for privacy, church attorneys Hennigan Bennett & Dorman lifted graphic answers by plaintiffs and filed them as exhibits in a motion to strike against those very plaintiffs’ cases.

Attorneys for both sides meet in judge’s chambers twice this week, for status conferences on the civil cases as they “fast-track” to jury trials this summer.

Plaintiffs also request a Discovery Referee, and apparently one is badly needed. Here is what it’s like to try to get answers out of the church, from an attempt to depose Msgr. Arthur J. Lirette of Glendale CA a few months back:

TONY DEMARCO: Monsignor, in your experience in the archdiocese would it have been suspicious for improper sexual relations with a minor, among other things -- if a priest were to allow a minor to stay overnight with them in their living quarters in a rectory?

CHURCH ATTORNEY HABEL: I’m going to object.… calls for speculation lacks foundation incomplete hypothetical.

DEMARCO: You're instructing him not to answer?

HABEL: As posed I am.

QUESTION: Monsignor, again, in your experience with the diocese if a priest at one of your parishes had allowed a minor to be alone with them in their living quarters for an appreciable length of time would that also have been suspicious to you, among other things that they might be engaging in inappropriate relations--

CHURCH ATTORNEY HABEL: Same objections.

CHURCH ATTORNEY BLANCARTE: Misstates prior testimony there’s no foundation for his having made a prior response to that effect

CHURCH ATTORNEY RIVERA: And same objection. Instruct not to answer.

CHURCH ATTORNEY BLANCARTE: your word “also” it presupposed that he had previously answered the question --

DEMARCO: Monsignor Lirette has spent over half a century in parish life, much of which was spent in a senior capacity as administrator of a parish. His testimony on what specific conduct of parish priests would have raised concerns of child molestation are appropriate and deal with the most central issues of these clergy sexual molestation cases.

A Motion to Compel Monsignor Lirette’s testimony is on calendar for May 16, Dept. 20 Superior Court, 8:30 AM.
========

CHURCH INVADES PLAINTIFFS' PRIVACY

While always claiming privacy rights for priests…

Here’s something alarming.

Personal, sexually specific testimony of plaintiffs in deposition is now online for anyone with a credit card to read thanks to church attorneys’ careless filing of 575 pages of exhibits in a motion for summary judgment filed March 26.

I open one document, looking through the exhibits, and all of a sudden I’m reading very private graphic words of a plaintiff thinking where’s the warning "contains graphic sexual matter"?

Without meaning to I'm reading about the sexual identity crises he had as an adolescent. In another defense exhibit a plaintiff describes not being able to perform as an adult, another shows he had sexual problems with his wife when they first got married, another describes how as a young adult he was afraid his penis would crack…

In some cases the plaintiff’s full name is also on these exhibits

filed by Hennigan Bennett & Dorman, attorneys for the Los Angeles archdiocese.

Remember this firm from the Orange County bankruptcy of the nineties, not the archdiocese, the government. They specialize in corporate bankruptcies and “The bedrock of HBD’s Complex Litigation group’s practice is our ability to try and to win large business and commercial cases,” reads their website.

Church attorneys excerpted select pages of plaintiff deposition testimony with just these explicit graphic descriptions in the plaintiffs’ words and filed them as public documents -- as exhibits to support the church’s motions to dismiss these very plaintiffs’ cases -- and as prurient reading material for any pervert looking for new kicks to find on the internet.

That's harassment of plaintiffs and blatant violation of privacy -- by attorneys defending the church --

These same attorneys try to claim the priests and their bosses have a right to privacy and don’t have to testify about criminal sexual predatory acts committed by priests.

Surprise surprise. . .

-----------

PLENTY OF CRIMINAL ACTS COME OUT IN THE EXHIBITS:

I go document diving for felonies again -- open any case file

Also in those 575 pages of exhibits filed by the church March 26 is a description of what one priest did over a period of two years to an altar boy, again in the plaintiff’s own words, you can read what the priest did to him.

It’s eerie how to me this sounds almost like a child in the confessional:

Q: Describe what you have termed as sexual abuse.
A: {Listed}
Sexual talk, cursing and gambling 3 to 6 times a month.
Wrestled and played “grab ass” (Often)
Fr. Warned me not to tell
He carried weapons.
He hugged me in sexual manner (Often)
Would bring me to his bed during molestation (6-8 times a month)
Fondled my buttocks and body over my clothes and skin to skin (6-8 times a month)
Touched my anus with and without penetrating (4 - 6 times a month)
Masturbated himself in my presence
Made me masturbate him over my clothes and skin to skin
Oral copulation
Simulated intercourse over clothes and skin to skin
Anal intercourse (6-8 times a month)

Now church attorneys at Hennigan will argue a Motion for Summary judgment June 6 in this case, not claiming the crimes didn't happen, but claiming statute of limitations problems.

================

MORE UPCOMING HEARINGS:

April 18 Katherine Freberg faces Donald Steier in case BC307225 where the archdiocese is refusing to produce seminary files of the following priests:

Caffoe
Rucker
Sutphin
Dawson
Buckman
Hagenbach and
Kelly

This is the case where Helmut Hefner showed up for a deposition without the subpoenaed seminary files. ( See post dated March 28.)

========================

MOTION TO STRIKE MOTION TO STRIKE MOTION TO STRIKE MOTION TO . . .

Eight motions for summary judgment filed by Hennigan firm for the church on March 26 are on calendar for June 6, hearings. The church here claims statute of limitations weren’t met even under the new 340 civil code that created the window to file cases in the first place.

It’s amazing how often Hennigan and other church attorneys use Civil Code 340 as the priests’ defense when in appeals courts they also argue that 340 isn’t even constitutional.

Always trying to have it both ways.

=====================

25 MORE MOTIONS TO STRIKE NEXT WEEK

Unless resolved earlier:

April 17 - eight (8) demurrers and motions to quash and dismiss.

April 18 - Seventeen (17) Motions to Strike (and dismiss)

=======

MORE of MONSIGNOR LIRETTE’S DEPOSITION Non-TESTIMONY

Q: So if you had found out after the fact that the parish housekeeper knew that Father so and so was sexually molesting a child and she hadn’t said anything to you, you wouldn't be upset with her?

CHURCH ATTORNEY GODFREY: Misstates testimony

CHURCH ATTORNEY HABEL: Misstates his testimony. Again his specualtion Lacks foundation is an incomplete hypothetical, lacks foundation, it. You've gone far enough with the what ifs and with the scenarios…..

DE MARCO: I’m not trying to raise my voice, Jim, please ratchet down. I understand. We have differing positions. I just want to make sure we make our record.

More to come…