Manifestations, weird interpretations, a priest with ties to predator pedophiles all over LA: Salesian pretrial motions next 2 weeks, trial April 14th

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By Kay Ebeling
Document diving begins again at City of Angels Blog with the Salesian cases going to jury trial April 14th in LA Superior Court. The same group of lawyers who battled plaintiffs in San Francisco in 2006 are in LA filing heaps of pretrial motions. On April 10th defendants try to exclude the entire testimony of Tom Doyle, as “The First amendment bars Fr. Doyle’s testimony on Canon Law.”

City of Angels alarms went off reading the names of priests Salesian lawyers don’t want mentioned during the upcoming trial. Number 16 on a list of 20 is George Neville Rucker. This ambisexual predator’s name comes up in a lot of predator priest case files. Rucker got around. He was part of the madness at Mary Star of the Sea Parish in San Pedro, in the fifties and sixties. Rucker is connected to the crimes of Salesian Titian Miani in the April 14th trial.

A trial about the crimes of George Neville Rucker would be going on this spring if the LA cases hadn’t settled out of court last July, leaving only 17 Salesian cases to be argued in court this month.

More on Motions in Limine in next week's hearings: Salesians want to exclude witnesses who were also victims of Salesian priests.

The 1947 documents from Italy about Titian Miani have to be translated all over again if they do get entered as evidence, because the translation done by plaintiffs had "interpretation of words rather than direct literal translations.” The church attorney who wrote that motion, Leila Nourani, practices law in three languages herself.

I wonder if Leila Nourani could translate the Titian Miani document from Italian into “literal Farsi.”

On April 11th plaintiffs ask Judge Emilie Elias to exclude their own list evidence and testimony, saying defendants may “insinuate that plaintiffs either consented to the sexual abuse or suffered little or no damage as a result.”

The Salesian cases and documents are in the Superior Court bldg on Commonwealth, across from Lafayette Park. No courtrooms in this sloping moderne structure have a scanner, apparently, so motions are filed 20th century style only. In a courtroom down the hall from Department 308 documents are starting to take up more than a quarter of the space, with case files stacked in boxes and piles.

At one point when I was document diving, the clerk handed me a stack of plaintiffs’ motions in limine, which means evidence and testimony plaintiffs do not want heard in the courtroom and this metallic vice gripped my hands and shoulders holding them down. I couldn't look at the papers.

Earlier, to get to the courthouse, I made a wrong turn and ended up having to go three blocks uphill to get to the Metro transfer. I was really tired, and this cool breeze started and picked me up by the elbows, literally carried me, my feet barely touched the sidewalk, all the way to the Metro bench. The bus came, I got on, and proceeded to get off again at the wrong stop. . .

This new medicine Lyrica that I'm on makes me spacier than medical marijuana.

But I digress.

The Lyrica does do miracles for the Fibromyalgia which it turns out IS neuropathic damage just like I tried to tell doctors back in the 1990s.

But I digress.

I digress a lot since I got on the Lyrica. . .

Re Tom Doyle’s testimony in the Salesians Cases Jury Trial Coming April 14th:

Defendants argue that Doyle can’t provide his opinion about prior notice involving Fathers Lorenzoni or Marguia’s “because that's an ultimate conclusion that the jury could readily determine on its own.”

The First amendment bars Fr. Doyle’s testimony on Canon Law,” reads the defendants’ argument and that is not an April Fool’s joke. “The First amendment “also bars evidence of practices and procedures that exist solely because of canon law,” defendants claim.

Let me get this straight.

They want to write crimes into their laws then make it illegal to read their laws.

Salesians want to keep Tom Doyle from testifying about anything but a 1962 papal instruction.
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Plaintiffs want to exclude “mention of sexual behavior outside the scope of sexual abuse by Fr. Titian Miani, Father Larry Lorenzoni and Brother Ralph Marguia,” their motion reads.

Plaintiffs “believe defendant will offer evidence in an attempt to minimize liability, blame, and plaintiffs damages on other alleged causes, or possibly to insinuate that plaintiffs either consented to the sexual abuse or suffered little or no damage as a result of the sexual abuse.”

Hearing on defendants motions in Limine is April 10th and plaintiffs’ motions in Limine will be heard April 11th. Then the trial goes on April 14th.

The discovery plaintiffs weren’t able to get from defendants in pretrial will just have to come out in court.

Defendants want to exclude evidence of Gerald M’s confession and manifestation.

WHAT THE HECK IS A MANIFESTATION?

Oh right, the defendants are a mystical organization that claims a direct connection to God.

I had a connection like that last time I clicked on a Gospel song here at City of Angels Blog.

But I digress again.

“Defendants anticipate plaintiff will attempt to introduce evidence at trial concerning Gerald M who was allegedly abused by Lorenzoni and then spoke about that abuse first during the sacrament of confession and then several years later during a confidential conversation known as a ‘manifestation’ with the Salesian provincial.”

Get out your garlic, guys, it’s going to be a weird trial.

20 priests the Salesians don't want mentioned in the upcoming jury trial:

ERNEST MARTINEZ
RICHARD PRESENTI
BENJAMIN DABBENE
STEVE WHELAN
MARK EPPERSON
JOHN VOS
MANUEL JIMINEZ
JOHN TKELICK
ROY VETARI
FATHER SIMISCH
HAROLD DANIELSON
SAL BILLANTE
JUAN SANCHEZ
TEACHER MARK DEJARDINS
JESSIE DOMINGUEZ
GEORGE NEVILLE RUCKER
JOSEPH RYAN
CLEVE CAREY
ROBERT MANNING
JOHN DAWSON

Onward. . .