Now church wants to exclude what happened in the rectories from trials; and Mahony is still evading Interrogatories 1 - 8; plus quotes from Tom Doyle.

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By Kay Ebeling

I went to court yesterday as a hearing on Cardinal Majony’s answers to Interrogatories 1-8 was on calendar again. On the taped sheet outside the door the hearing on Mahony’s answers was again off calendar but the clerk had apparently penned it back in. Then during a different hearing, Church Attorney Lee Potts said, “Your Honor, there’s a hearing on the calendar and it’s not supposed to be” referring to BC307225 re Interrogatories 1 through 8.

After the hearings I went down to Room 106 to document dive and again found “arcscanweb is having difficulty please try later.” I went back upstairs to get a copy of an order, and lo and behold there was a hearing going on.

Church Attorney Sean Kneafsey had been in the hallway pacing on his cell phone earlier, a look on his face like twin towers were tumbling down inside his head. He was now in court against Tony DeMarco and Patrick Laurence for the plaintiffs. Apparently an ex parte in the jury room had gone so bad it was brought now before the judge unexpectedly. It was the hearing on Interrogatories 1 through 8, that elusive hearing that keeps going off calendar and on and off and on again.

I didn't have my laptop out so didn't get verbatim quotes. But Kneafsey said Church Attorneys did everything they could to locate priests to be deposed about their memories of Clinton Hagenbach. Kneafsey said they’d sent letters to the parishes, something like, “the parishes are the structure we have for contacting priests.”

Tony DeMarco spoke up: It’s our understanding the archdiocese continues to provide health insurance and other benefits to these priests, Your Honor. So they have a current address on these men.

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So in the next few days there should be a declaration from Church Attorney Sean Kneafsey re all the documents and answers the archdiocese is finally going to provide in the JCCP documents available to the public in arcscanweb’s database. Right.

The Continuing Saga of Missing Documents.

And the amazing things you still can find, despite attempts to block access

There were 340-plus screens in April. Now there are 178. The emptied files are not a result of database managers cleaning out the garbage. You still see streams of Civil Deposits and 1-page servings.

So what was taken out of the database May 30-31, we'll probably never know.

However, later in the afternoon when the database went back up I found a stream of opposition motions filed by plaintiffs, as statements of support, etc, concerning:

Defendant’s motion to exclude references to purported internal church policies regarding minors in rectories.

Here’s the latest tactic from those bottom of the law school graduating class members of Cardinal Mahony’s legal team (9 firms and counting)

These church attorneys are oh so caring and concerned about the well being of children, they don’t want any references church policy re what took place in rectories when priests were alone with children to be brought up in court. Here is how Katherine Freberg and her team of attorneys is responding:

“Day in and day out for 17 years Father Hagenbach brought boys to his rectory living quarters and abused them behind closed doors. . . .

“Evidence regarding the existence of these church policies is extremely relevant. . . . It’s clear: Defendants had such policies in place. They existed specifically because of a concern for the abuse of minors. The policy was routinely violated by Hagenbach and defendants’ employees knew.

“The only thing that is prejudicial about this evidence is that the plaintiffs as children had to suffer while religious leaders turned a blind eye.”

REPEAT: “WHILE RELIGIOUS LEADERS TURNED A BLIND EYE”

People often say to me, get over it. I think all survivors have heard that. So you were molested, so were a lot of kids. Get on with your life.

For me it’s not the abuse for which I need justice. It’s the way the bosses handled it. I can live with the fact that a molester got to me at an early age and it messed with my life.

I need Anger Management because pedophiles' bosses knew they were pedophiles, in my case knew I was being molested, and didn't do anything about it -- except pay off my father and arrange for us to move two thousand miles away.

“While religious leaders turned a blind eye” is why we are in court today.

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“Their methods were extremely troublesome” -- FATHER THOMAS DOYLE

In his support statement for plaintiffs on including policy re priests and children in the trials:

So now the church wants to exclude any evidence of how it handled what the priests did in the rectories with children. (Maybe someone in the archdiocese has exclusive rights to the videos?)

Father Thomas Doyle is among those filing their support for plaintiffs to include church policy re bedroom shenanigans in trials. In his statement of support he wrote:

“The Code of Canon Law states that there is to be a secret archive in every diocese where more sensitive materials are kept. Procedures are to be kept in the secret archive. The specific canons are the revised Code of Canon Law 1983.

“As one of the witnesses that appeared before the national Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People, I have a personal knowledge of their findings. They found the methods used by the Church to avoid scandal particularly troublesome.”

Doyle continued: “To shield these types of documents from legitimate inquiry is both illicit and inappropriate”

Doyle describes how the church handled sex abuse complaints:

“To shield evidence of scandal from discovery throughout the period circa 1990 it was suggested that if the documents had not been subpoenaed that they could be courierred to the office of the Vatican Ambassador, in Washington.

“To bring them under the shield of diplomatic immunity, Bishop Quinn even suggested that unsigned letters alleging misconduct should be expunged. To shield these types of documents from legitimate inquiry is both illicit and inappropriate.

“Defendants seek to exclude all evidence that defendants had policies that prohibited priest from having minors in their rectory living quarters or alone with them on trips. Defendants’ argument is based on the proposition that violation of such policies could not be relevant."

Hearing June 28 on whether or not to include evidence of what went on in the rectories. Hagenbach jury trial is July 9th.

More to come. . .

Phew, that's the first time I typed "father" in front of a name and didn't get panicked. Must be progress.