Santa Rosa Diocese’s bankruptcy paused 260 sexual abuse lawsuits against Catholic church. Now some may proceed to trial

About sexual abuse lawsuits were paused when the Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa filed for bankruptcy in That has been a frustration for survivors who want the actions of their abusers and the failings of the powerful institution that obscured the crimes dragged into the daylight Now it looks like a limited of those survivors may have their days in court RELATED Diocese of Oakland seeks to pull plug on bankruptcy send sex abuse cases back to court The judge in the bankruptcy Charles Novack of the Northern District of California in recent times put a small set of lawsuits on the path to trial where they are expected to set a baseline for the diocese s anticipated financial liability Related Articles Zoe Rosenberg testifies she rescued chickens not committed crimes in Petaluma Poultry episode Former Bay Area cop involved in fatal shooting receiving more than annually in retirement benefits Antioch City Council weighs proposed amendments to police oversight commission Ex-NFL running back Doug Martin dies in Oakland police custody sources say Break-in suspect dies in custody Oakland Police Department says It s an key step those involved say in pushing insurance companies to enter into a global settlement with the diocese and the dozens of people who say they were harmed by predatory church figures And it could offer a rare chance for claimants to speak openly of their abuse in a courtroom and to gather additional information through the legal discovery process When cases are quieted by bankruptcy commented Dan McNevin who is on the board of directors of the advocacy group Survivors Configuration of those Abused by Priests or SNAP it means the masses won t have a clear read on who enabled the abuse who covered it up and whether those people are still in power and behaving in that fashion When McNevin was molested in the Oakland Diocese he noted the bishop there reported him his abuser the Rev James Clark had no prior record After he sued McNevin located out Clark had in fact been convicted of a sex crime before moving into his parish His file was sanitized There was no record of his probation McNevin disclosed We got the information by deposing the former chancellor of the diocese So discovery is really key Little has been revealed publicly about the cases Novack is allowing to proceed Should any of the plaintiffs win those lawsuits it s likely funds recovered in judgment would be held in trust noted Jennifer Stein an attorney with Jeff Anderson Associates a Los Angeles-based firm that has represented thousands of casualties of predatory priests That money would be distributed later among qualifying survivors The Santa Rosa Diocese which oversees parishes reaching from American Canyon in Napa County to Crescent City near the Oregon confines filed for Chapter bankruptcy in March Like Catholic dioceses across the U S the local jurisdiction revealed it was facing an existential threat from a massive wave of sex abuse suits Bishop Robert Vasa of the Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa Oct Kent Porter The Press Democrat Christopher Chung The Press DemocratMike Tarvid filed a lawsuit against the Santa Rosa Catholic Diocese after harboring a secret for nearly years involving his abuse at the hands of North Coast priest Gary Timmons Photo taken in Santa Rosa on Dec Christopher Chung The Press Democrat Kent Porter The Press DemocratFather John Crews the former executive director of the Hanna Boys Center in Sonoma Valley was among names published in by the Santa Rosa Diocese listing those who committed child sexual abuse or were credibly accused of such crimes Hanna Boys Center is a co-defendant in dozens of lawsuits against the Santa Rosa Diocese Crews resigned in when he was first accused of child sex abuse by the widow of a man who had been assaulted at a Sebastopol church He was last known to be in South Carolina Kent Porter The Press Democrat Show Caption of Bishop Robert Vasa of the Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa Oct Kent Porter The Press Democrat Expand By that time the Santa Rosa Diocese had been served with about indicates of sexual abuse under a state law that opened a three-year window for survivors and older to file personal injury cases for past child sex abuse cases By August the diocese had paid out at least million in settlements dating back to the s at the onset of a painful worldwide reckoning with sexual abuse by clergy within the Catholic church In January the diocese disclosed a list of of its priests and bishops who committed sexual abuse and misconduct or had been credibly accused of doing so between the s and the s The efforts of survivors are now moving along two tracks There is Novack s courtroom the setting for one of bankruptcy cases nationwide involving Catholic dioceses including six in California Oakland San Francisco and Sacramento among them Another dioceses have emerged from bankruptcy since And there s Judicial Council Coordinated Proceeding or JCCP which consolidates hundreds of lawsuits against multiple Catholic dioceses in Northern California That proceeding is being administered in Alameda County Superior Court The decision by religious leaders to file for bankruptcy demonstrates the strength of the abuse cases according to Stein They would not be taking such expensive egregious measures if there weren t fear of liability she noted Bishop Robert F Vasa of Santa Rosa leader of the diocese since acknowledges the gravity of the threat It s absolutely no secret that sexual abuse lawsuits even in the secular world bring huge judgments in a court of law Vasa reported So there s no doubt in the circumstance of the church they be equally large if not larger But it s beyond our scope to generate the money to pay for those Regardless of whether it s a million judgment or a million judgment we don t have the information in a million years is to pay for those Long list of co-defendants A bankruptcy court exhibit filed in April offers detail on sites connected to the alleged abuse in the Santa Rosa Diocese The largest share of complaints in all name Hanna Boys Center the -year-old residential school and provision campus for at-risk youth that has sought to remake itself with a retooled mission even as new suits piled up alleging long-ago abuse But the list of diocesan sites is long and varied Camp St Michael an outdoor ministry in Mendocino County that ceased operation in is named in contends The diocesan cathedral St Eugene s in Santa Rosa is named in Nine are tied to St Bernard s Catholic Church in Eureka nine to St Rose of Lima church in Santa Rosa seven to St Apollinaris in Napa and six to Cardinal Newman High School in Santa Rosa In all diocese sites are represented The exhibit laying out that information pertains to a subset of cases that include co-defendants The state court is now weighing a request to allow those suits to proceed against the co-defendants even if they are paused against the diocese The church is fighting the effort arguing that because co-defendants such as Hanna Boys Center and Cardinal Newman are covered by the same insurance policies as the diocese any legal fees or settlements they end up paying will only further deplete the money potentially available for the wider pool of survivors The Santa Rosa Diocese estimates the sexual abuse cases levied against it would average million each in monetary demands liability that could surpass half a billion dollars if the church were to lose all the cases In its bankruptcy petition the diocese stated unidentified assets valued between million and million To get a more accurate read on liability it is common in litigation spanning multiple districts for the court to select one or more cases to proceed to trial Novack signaled his approval in the bankruptcy and the diocese worked with a committee of unsecured creditors in the development made up of sex abuse survivors to identify a handful of representative cases The committee required several cases disclosed for trial to kind of set a benchmark what are these cases worth in a real trial Vasa explained Just to say to the insurers If these go to trial there may be a huge judgment Insurers called out Insurance companies are a major competitor in these bankruptcy proceedings Particular of the other parties believe they are an impediment The insurers have been woefully deficient in fulfilling contractual promises to pay indicates disclosed attorney Rick Simons who serves as a liaison for the hundreds of sex abuse cases that make up JCCP the consolidated civil action They sold these policies in the s the s the s a few into the s for and apiece Simons noted of the insurers Now they owe nationally billions and billions of dollars in asserts They don t care about rules and laws They just want to keep saying no so they can negotiate a lump sum that s like cents on the dollar Just over a year ago the creditors committee petitioned for a two-hour court conference allowing survivors to read personal statements This proceeding is likely the only opportunity that Survivors in Santa Rosa will have to seek acknowledgement and justice for the decades of isolation and pain they endured the committee argued The church supported the motion At least five insurance companies opposed it Lloyd s of London Pacific Indemnity Pacific Employers Insurance Century Indemnity and Westchester Fire Insurance the latter four all under the umbrella of Pacific Novack granted the petition over their objections and survivors were allowed to read statements during a private conference on Feb Meanwhile committee members have joined the diocese and its insurers in several rounds of court-approved mediation Vasa insists all parties including the church are working hard to reach an agreement everyone can live with It s kind of a dance the bishop mentioned What is a reasonable number that the committee will accept so that survivors will see they ve done their due diligence We can never compensate for all the harm done But we can manifest care and concern and demonstrate that we are not trying to stand in the way of what is just You can reach Phil Barber at - - or phil barber pressdemocrat com On X Twitter Skinny Post