Jury Selection a challenge for LA trial re pedophile priests, with settlements in the news last year, and trial expected to last five to six weeks

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By Kay Ebeling
One tactic we can anticipate in the upcoming pedophile priest jury trial in LA: the defense will say plaintiffs’ diagnosis of PTSD as a result of priest sex crimes could be the result of “other stressors” in life. “It’s our belief he ignores other stressors with respect to these plaintiffs,” said Wayne Mason in motions in limine hearings today, trying to limit the testimony of a psychiatrist in the trial which begins jury selection next week.

Mr. Perp Defender, you have a lot to learn about the damage a pedophile priest’s antics do to the human psyche. I don't know too many people who hallucinate and see demons because of “life’s stressors” but for example, last Tuesday, I really did think I saw ulcerous bumps on one defense attorney’s skin and pock marks all over the face of another. I went home sure that the defense team members were a gang of demonic spirits gathered on Earth at this time to carry out some dark karma defending pedophile priests in the Salesian Religious Order. I wasn’t joking when I wrote that here Tuesday. I hallucinate on a regular basis, and I’ve learned to live with it.

I’ve never met anyone who has dissociation, shakes, hallucinations, manic episodes, and uncontrollable rages because of Life’s Little Stressors. A lot of clergy sex crime victims have the diagnosis of “Prolonged PTSD,” the mind and body reacting and internalizing trauma “For Prolonged Periods of Time” and you don’t get this sick due to a divorce or a death in the family.

PLEASE. It was bad enough having to listen to Cardinal Mahony’s personal attorney Lee Potts (sketched above reading briefs) and a couple other defense dweebs talk about TV coverage of the Pope in Washington before hearings started this morning in LA Superior Court. I overheard a whisper about the archbishop: “He didn't take any pictures of the Pope because he was too close to him, it would be tacky.” Then Lee Potts gurgled to Mason, “How are they going to give Communion to all those people in Yankee Stadium?”

Come on, Lee Potts, get real. You look more like someone with a secret life on Santa Monica Boulevard than someone with a secret passion for The Eucharist. Your interest in mass distribution of Holy Communion sounds as insincere as George Bush getting up after the pope made his speech in Washington last night, patting the pontiff on the back and saying, “That was an awesome speech, awesome speech.” (Yuck Yuck!) All this fake reverence over the pope, when at the same time Lee Potts, of Cardinal Mahony’s predatory defense team, spent most of 2007 filing so many motions to dismiss and motions for summary judgment in the clergy cases, that he wore down the judge and got cases struck down that should have gone forward.

Potts never denied that the rapes of children by priests in LA took place, as he filed his motion after motion to strike. Potts argued that a certificate was filed after deadline by a matter of hours, or a signature was incorrect on another filing. Potts would file 20-30 briefs at a time one week after another, and yes, some of those cases got dismissed on paper. In the end most cases dismissed in 2007 were included in the final settlements anyway, because of another state law. There was no real victory for Cardinal Mahony, but there were a lot of empty words spoken, sort of like the pope waving his hand and mumbling over thousands of people in Washington today.

Last year during the LA clergy cases, I wrote here that Lee Potts’ shaking and jiving, his almost manic motion filings and spit fire speech in litigation, reminded me of a person with. . . prolonged PTSD.

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Judge Emilie Elias, USC Law School grad, runs such a relaxed courtroom that at one point today she entered in her robe and said, “Did they all run away?” as the whole gaggle of attorneys was out in the hall. They realized the judge was back and all rushed back to their seats, as Judge Elias sat down and the proceedings began, very unceremonial.

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Trial Expected to Last Five to Six Weeks
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Remaining motions in limine will be heard next week, then begins jury selection. They have to identify a jury pool of persons who can serve for five to six weeks, then from that pool find persons with not too much knowledge about the clergy cases and settlements in LA last year. Jury selection will take two weeks itself.

Meanwhile City of Angels Lady is rediscovering a less literal side of my brain by bringing a sketch pad to court. The squiggles above represent Lee Potts in repose eyeing briefs as we waited for hearings to begin this morning, after he’d impressed everyone with his reverence for the Pope.

Give me a break. Thank God for movie channels on Cable, I'm skipping the news this week. When I heard five pedophile priest crime victims met in person with the Pope today and actually went off with him to describe what happened in private?

Man the thought of that gives me the creeps.

Onward through the fog. . .