Judge orders trials in 42 sex abuse cases in San Diego diocese

SAN DIEGO -- When the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego filed for bankruptcy in February, abruptly halting multiple sex-abuse lawsuits on the eve of trial, Michael Bang thought his chance for a day in court was gone.

On Friday, a federal bankruptcy judge revived hope for Bang, ruling that 42 cases be sent back to state courts for immediate jury trials.

"Doing that in February really reaffirmed to me how significant the cover-up is," said Bang, a 46-year-old Atlanta man who says he spent years of his boyhood as a sex slave to a reverend monsignor. "They want to do anything they can within the legal system to stop it, but all it's done is made me more committed to telling the truth."

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Louise DeCarl Adler's ruling was a victory for Bang and about 150 other people who claim they were sexually abused by priests as children.

Five trials out of about 127 filed against the diocese were scheduled to begin last spring in state court in San Diego. Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that reactivating those trials was the only way to get the diocese to settle after more than three years of fruitless negotiations in state and federal courts.

'Ratchets up the pressure'

"This just ratchets up the pressure on everyone to get the cases settled," said Irwin Zalkin, who represents 54 alleged victims. "Everyone understands it could go any way in a jury trial."

The San Diego diocese has offered about $94 million to settle the claims as part of its bankruptcy reorganization plan. Plaintiffs' attorneys are seeking a settlement of about $200 million.

The judge rejected the diocese's argument that she could return trials to state court only under "exceptional circumstances," saying she had broader discretion.

Even if the church were correct, "clearly this tsunami of child sex abuse cases against the Roman Catholic clergy would qualify as 'exceptional,'" Adler wrote.

Plaintiffs whose cases were not among those remanded nonetheless welcomed the renewed possibility of trial.

"My hope is that they don't settle and we go to trial," said Diane Williams, a 49-year-old mother who says she was raped as a girl by a monsignor at a church-run orphanage. "I think these things need to get out, but I don't think the diocese will let that happen."

Lawyers for the diocese told the judge Thursday that the fastest way to resolve the claims was for a federal district judge to determine a fair payment instead of letting juries consider the sex-abuse cases one by one.

"We had hoped that the judge would agree with us that the process the bankruptcy court had set in place was the most expeditious way to get these cases settled," said Susan Boswell, an attorney representing the diocese. "She obviously didn't agree with us."

Adler's ruling puts the cases back under the jurisdiction of state courts. She will decide the order in which to release each of the 42 cases for trial, likely beginning with those that were already close to being heard last spring, said Ryan DiMaria, an attorney representing a man whose case was supposed to be the second in line.

Trials could begin in as little as 60 days, plaintiffs' attorneys said.

The Los Angeles Archdiocese settled 508 cases for $660 million in July, two days before jury selection was scheduled to begin in the first of 15 trials involving 172 abuse claimants.

The Orange County diocese agreed to settle 90 claims for $100 million in 2004 after a judge promised to set trial dates and begin the discovery process if settlement talks collapsed. Bishop Tod D. Brown later said he couldn't risk a trial in a state where a jury once awarded $30 million to two people who claimed they were sexually abused by clergy.

Attorneys for the San Diego diocese have argued that jury trials would slow progress toward a settlement and may give unfair priority to the claims of plaintiffs whose cases went to trial first.

With nearly 1 million Catholics and holdings throughout San Diego County, the diocese is by far the largest and wealthiest of the five U.S. dioceses to have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection under the shadow of civil claims over sexual abuse.

Dioceses in Spokane, Wash., Portland, Ore., and Tucson, Ariz., have already emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Davenport, Iowa, diocese, which faces claims from more than 150 people, is still in proceedings.