The Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence has reached tentative financial
settlements in dozens of sexual-abuse lawsuits that the church has been
fighting for 10 years, according to a source close to the case.
The diocese refused to confirm the settlements yesterday, and
acknowledged only that it had entered into mediation with most of the 38
alleged and proven victims of sexual abuse by 11 priests and one nun
over three decades.
William T. Murphy, the church's lawyer, said in a joint statement with
the plaintiffs' lawyers: "The parties have been involved in intense
mediation toward resolution of the pending cases. Out of respect for the
process, no further statement will be issued at this time."
One settlement offer from the Providence diocese was described in a
motion filed in Superior Court on Tuesday by a Cranston lawyer who
represents a woman who is suing the diocese.
A source yesterday confirmed that the majority of the plaintiffs
participated in mediation, and have reached tentative settlement
agreements with the diocese.
The settlement would be one of only a few since the clergy-abuse scandal
swept across the nation. In January, the Tucson diocese paid a reported
$15 million in 11 lawsuits.
After backing out of a settlement earlier this year, the Boston
archdiocese has proposed a $10-million settlement for alleged victims
there.
At a news conference yesterday, Boston plaintiffs' lawyer Mitchell
Garabedian said 86 of his clients were considering the proposal, but he
would not say how many had agreed to it.
In Providence, a settlement would be an abrupt shift in legal strategy,
coming after years of vigorous litigation, in which the diocese has
refused to relinquish files, has demanded as many as 400 documents from
each plaintiff, and has continually sought to have all but four of the
lawsuits dismissed on arguments that they violated statutes of
limitations.
David Clohessy, director of the national group Survivors Network of
those Abused by Priests, said of the Rhode Island lawsuits: "I don't
know of a case where there has been nine years of such protracted
litigation, such intransigence by church leaders."
In March, the Providence diocese turned down a proposal from plaintiffs'
lawyers to settle for over $23 million over five years, or transfer
nonessential real estate.
In rejecting the proposal, James T. Murphy, a diocesan lawyer, said
then: "The plaintiffs' lawyers want us to basically pay lots of money to
these plaintiffs, or other plaintiffs down the road, even though our
clients are not morally or legally responsible for what priests may or
may not have done."
These comments came before this summer, when the diocese's longtime
success in Rhode Island's courts came to a halt.
Superior Court Judge Robert D. Krause, who took over the litigation last
fall, in July ordered the diocese to open its files to show what the
hierarchy knew and did about sexually deviant priests.
Krause, noting a national "clamor for reform," essentially reversed
years of Rhode Island court decisions that had allowed the diocese to
resist answering prying questions and avoid turning over memoranda and
personnel files -- using arguments of canon law, religious freedom, and
clergy-penitent privilege.
The plaintiffs' lawyers had obtained numerous sworn affidavits, from a
priest and parishioners, who said they complained to the Providence
diocese about sexually abusive priests as early as the 1960s. The
lawyers believed the diocese's files, including its own internal
investigations of convicted priests, would show how the hierarchy
handled abusers.
Krause wrote of the national call for "public disclosure of matters
relating to priests who sexually assault children."
"It is simply wrong," he wrote, "to conclude that information and
communications that plaintiffs seek are privileged and should somehow be
insulated from disclosure, when that information relates in any way to a
pedophile priest who has engaged in criminal sexual assaults upon
children."
The diocese appealed Krause's decision, but Krause reaffirmed it on July
8. Three days later, the diocese filed a motion with the state's Supreme
Court, arguing that Krause's order should be reviewed because it
differed from an earlier decision by Superior Court Judge Richard J.
Israel.
The Supreme Court did not act on the motion.
Weeks later, the Providence diocese began mediation with 37 of the 38
plaintiffs at Commonwealth Mediation & Conciliation, a Brockton firm,
according to a motion filed in Superior Court on Tuesday.
In the motion, Steven A. Robinson, the lawyer for one of the plaintiffs,
asked to be removed from the case, partly because his client had not
participated in mediation.
A lawyer for the mediation firm had nonetheless called "to relay an
offer in settlement" from the diocese, Robinson wrote. His client had
asked him not to pursue the offer. Robinson wrote of a "likely
settlement" in most of the The 38 lawsuits name individual parishes and
priests, the Roman Catholic Bishop Corporation -- which holds the
church's priciest property -- and the hierarchy: Bishop Robert E.
Mulvee, former Bishop Louis E. Gelineau, and former auxiliary bishop
Kenneth A. Angell, now bishop of Burlington, Vt.
Until Judge Krause's decision in July, it appeared that the diocese and
plaintiffs were headed to trial.
In May, church lawyers scheduled 30 depositions in 40 days, calling in
both proven victims, and alleged victims, often along with their
parents, neighbors and others. Some of the depositions turned
contentious, and showed the adversarial relationship between the two
sides, transcripts recently obtained by the Journal show.
Take the Bragg family of Warwick. In 1999, the Rev. Michael LaMountain
pleaded guilty to repeatedly sexually assaulting three Bragg boys and
two others from the 1970s through the early 1990s. One Bragg son is
suing the diocese.
Diocesan lawyers this summer called in the entire Bragg family,
including a fourth son who was a toddler at the time of the abuse.
A diocesan lawyer emphasized in depositions how Elizabeth Bragg, the
boys' mother, had confronted LaMountain in a letter, but had not gone to
police or to the bishop.
(According to court files, the mother suspected only that the priest
might have rubbed her son's leg while on an errand. Court files contain
a reply from Father LaMountain, apologizing and saying he was seeking
treatment).
In the diocese's June deposition of William Bragg, the boys' father,
another church lawyer, James T. Murphy said: "You're aware that there
are other young men who are filing suits or [who] filed suits against
the bishops who were molested years after your wife wrote that letter to
LaMountain?"
When Bragg became irritated, Carl P. DeLuca, the plaintiff's attorney,
suggested they take a break: "Both you guys are getting upset."
Replied Murphy: "I am upset. You know why I'm upset, Carl? You tell
these poor people lies about my client. They have an understanding of
facts that are totally distorted. These poor men and women are more
upset because of what the lawyers do than they are about anything the
damned priests did."
Referring to Murphy, Bragg said: "My blood pressure is sky high. He
can't keep yelling like this and intimidating people."
Asked why his son had filed a lawsuit against the church, Bragg said:
"To bring this to a head, to have the church take the responsibility to
remove these pedophiles from the church, okay. That is the reason. You
can believe that or not. But that's the only way something gets done
with the church, if there's a lawsuit brought. If they think it's going
to hurt their assets, then they'll make changes. Other than that, they
just . . . "It was unclear yesterday how the Providence diocese's assets
would be tapped in a settlement.
According to the diocese's 2000-2001 financial statement, the diocese
had not factored in a possible settlement, stating that its Roman
Catholic Bishop Corporation is the defendant in several lawsuits
relating to the alleged misconduct of priests. "Management, in
consultation with legal counsel, believes it has strong legal defenses
in these cases and that potential settlement amounts, if any, will not
be material to financial statements," the statement said.
The plaintiffs' attorneys say the diocese has real estate worth $44
million, including the 75-acre Aldrich mansion on Warwick Neck and a
$2.5-million summer home on Watch Hill. The diocese will not confirm the
figure.
The diocese relied on its Catholic Mutual insurance to settle, a few
years ago, with a young man abused in 1991 by the Rev. James M. Silva.
But the diocese's major insurer, for the span during which the most
sexual abuse is said to have occurred, has already balked once at paying
sexual-abuse claims.
In 1994, the diocese submitted claims to the Aetna Casualty & Surety Co.
under two polices it says it had with Aetna from 1974 to 1977.
Aetna, in turn, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Providence
saying it shouldn't have to pay these claims. In the case, which is
still ongoing in federal court, Aetna wrote that church officials,
including Bishop Gelineau, knew about the alleged abuse and failed to
stop it, "thereby failing to mitigate damages as insured parties are
required to do."
