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WED: 5.21.08 UPDATE: I am slammed at work, all RUSH jobs (because they are about Britney Spears) so can't even look at the blog for a few days. All will be continued shortly. Hopefully soon. -- KE -
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By Kay Ebeling
When I sat in on a meeting between a plaintiff and Roger Mahony this month, she asked the cardinal, “Where are the documents that you're supposed to release as part of the settlement?” The cardinal said she’d have to go to her lawyer and request the files, and then expect objections from the priests, a process which most plaintiffs would find daunting after six years of legal issues.
The cardinal was wrong. What he told the plaintiff, who was meeting with him for healing and renewed trust, was incorrect. The archbishop said the priests on their own object to release of their files, claiming privacy rights (see May 12 post). Mahony told the plaintiff she’d see the priests’ attorney Donald Steier in court if she pursued this legal action.
Cardinal Mahony archbishop of Los Angeles assured my friend, as I sat there listening, that he had nothing at all to do with release of documents on perpetrator priests, which was part of the settlement of the LA Clergy Cases.
For one, the archdiocese pays legal costs for the priests to object to release of their documents. “Steier admitted in testimony in the court of appeals that he was paid by the Los Angeles archdiocese to represent the priests.” Quotes here are from a phone conversation last week with Tony DeMarco, of Kiesel Boucher Larson, lead plaintiff attorneys in the LA cases against the Archdiocese.
DeMarco took issue with Mahony's words; “Steier does not work for free and those priests are not the ones who are paying him hourly. Where do you think the money is coming from?”
“They're trying to say it’s all the priests objecting to release of documents, but the archdiocese is paying the lion’s share of the bill for Donald Steier to represent them.”
Here is the Document Protocol:
“I’ll be doing an en masse request,” DeMarco said last week. “I’m getting all the signatures now, putting together the applications to the court.” Then when and if the priests object, hearings on their objections will be public.
City of Angels will watch for the hearings on release of these documents:
Here is how it will be done:
“We don’t know for sure that it will be Justice Edward A. Panelli (retired from the California Supreme Court), who will review the files, but his name is even written into the settlement agreement.
“First it has to wait for an order from Judge Emilie Elias,” DeMarco said, “then we'll have to figure out the process with Panelli.
The Priests' Objections:
"It’s my understanding, Panelli will hear the legal challenges by the priests," DeMarco said.
I said, that's the kind of hearing a lot of survivors would want to attend.
DeMarco said, “They should. This is what a lot of us were fighting for. The compensation was important, but we had almost every perspective juror in the Salesians cases raising their hand that the church was lying. There’s a lot of details in those files.”
He added: “Depositions regarding these cases are part of the protective order Judge Fromholz issued. He issued a guideline for what has to be under seal. He didn't say each one is under seal, he said everything is under seal.
“So now I have to go back and figure it all out. We'll have hearings with Judge Elias next,” he said, adding they would be in a matter of months.
The motion DeMarco files will mark the first time anyone has compiled and calculated how many perpetrator priests there were in the LA and San Diego settlements last year, and who is connected to which plaintiffs. DeMarco is putting together this “en masse request” by putting together for the first time each perpetrator and the plaintiffs in their cases.
“Then I’ll be the one getting the files to the judge for review." Panelli lives now in Santa Clara, CA.
“We have to make sure there will be public hearings,” DeMarco said.
Again, City of Angels will keep an eye on the calendar and as soon as these hearings on release of documents on perpetrator priests in LA are announced, we'll post the dates here. The first hearings will be in Judge Emilie Elias’ court on Commonwealth and Sixth near Lafayette Park.
The money is already there, DeMarco said: “Enough has been put away to make sure the judge who will be reviewing the files on an hourly basis can be paid.” Panelli, retired from the California Supreme Court, is the name that is actually written into the settlement to review the files, DeMarco said. “Enough money has been put away to make sure the judge who will be reviewing the files on an hourly basis can be paid.”
With the application DeMarco will file shortly, if priests object, there will also be hearings Judge Emilie Elias’ court.
“Once she gives her okay, these files can be sent to Panelli for review,” DeMarco said.
Plaintiff attorney Tony DeMarco will file en masse request, then hearings will be public, re the release of files of perpetrator priests in LA and San Diego cases.
DeMarco said it states in the 2004 Report to the People of God that the Archdiocese will pay for priests’ attorneys, as long as the priest is never convicted of a crime: Of course the priests are conveniently never totally convicted: I think the quote from LA Archdiocese report he’s referring to is this under Legal Expenses:
“In the context of the recent criminal and civil complaints against the priests, the Archdiocese has provided certain individual priests with loans to enable them to obtain legal representation in criminal investigations prior to being charged. Following indictment, the Archdiocese no longer provides legal support and will not provide bail. In civil cases, the Archdiocese provides limited funds for an initial review of the matter and has provided loans when needed by the priest for the assertion of certain constitutional rights prior to trial.
Next: Salesian Real Estate
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City of Angels Lady
3 comments:
now you see what I think of gay bashing, Act Up, only one using those words was you.
At www.bishop-accountability.org
in the ABUSE TRACKER section, are several postings today, 5/19/08, of Roger Mahony's self delusional belief he still has some (NOT) moral authority, to order Retired Roman Catholic Bishop Robinson, from Australia, on an America lecture tour, from not speaking in the Los Angeles Archdiocese, about the pervasive, overt, and ongoing criminal activity of men, exactly like Roger Mahony, costing laity BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, with no end in sight, no correction, child endangerment still widespread, and zero punishment of guilty cardinal and bishop perpetrators, in the many hundreds globally.
Roger Mahony remains the single largest yet indicted, prosecuted, or convicted, overtly criminal cardinal office holder in the history of the American Roman Catholic Church.
Roger Mahony is directly responsible for the perpetration, enabling, aid, abetting, obstruction of justice, and protection, of many hundreds of pedophile clergy, in the rape, sodomy, oral copulation, physical maiming, mental torture, perjury, extorsion, abduction, kidnapping, suiciding, murder, of THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN, just in CA, over at least three decades, in the Diocese(s) of Fresno & Stockton, as well as since 1985, in Los Angeles (all settlement to date paid by the laity).
There are over 80 empirical and 100% factual books on the likes of Mahony, and his criminal curia co-conspirators, at: www.amazon.com, all recently published, by such distinquished authors as: Richard Sipe, Leon Podles, Jason Berry, David Yallop, and Fr. Thomas Doyle, OP, to name but a few.
Recently, out on DVD, is 'VOWS OF SILENCE' we highly recommend, on the proven Mariel pedophile ring in the Mexican cult order, The Legion Of Christ, that Roger Mahony's Mexican criminal cardinal colleague Noberto Rivera claims "never happens" in his country.
Also for you film buffs, we recommend, for FREE, at www.youtube.com, or your local public libraries, the 2006 US Academy Award BEST DOCUMENTARY nominated 'DELIVER US FROM EVIL' on how Mahony's M-O is pervasive in criminal conduct.
The American civil and criminal courts, as well as canonical courts, have been GAMED by Mahony, and his curia crooks.
Mahony and the California bishops also actively lobby, all at laity cost, that there be no reform in statute of limitations for pedophile prosecutions in the US criminal courts, they covered up, and stalled out, and continue to cover up intentionally, to beat the system.
Therefore, how is true justice served?
It's quite simply really, the laity who contribute 100% of all Church revenue, must cease donating until evil men like Mahony are removed from office, each canonically censored, and each placed under life time house arrest (preferrably in a remote, harsh, dark, cold, windly, damp, moldy, bad food, no medical care, and forced hard labor monastery), at a MINIMUM, or alternatively, each is EXCOMMUNICATED.
Such a sentence is true CHRISTIAN MERCY, considering what each truly deserves in this life.
St. Paul reminds each of us in Ephesians 5:11: "Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them."
It is each and every Roman Catholic lay member's solemn and Christian duty to cease any donations of any monies to the Roman Catholic Church, untill ALL
guilty cardinals, like Mahony, Leveda, Rigali, Egan, McCarrick, George, Rivera, Hummes, Sodano, Pell, O'Malley, Maida, Law, etc., and hundreds upon hundreds of pedophile aid and abetting bishops are removed!
No Curia Accountability? No Laity Monies!
The Holy Spirit
ACTUP said:
Dear Roger
This job is so hard these days. Telling people what to think is not as easy as it once was.
Who knows, perhaps once their thoughts were more malleable. But the only ones who remain faithful to us now are the uneducated, the superstitious, some of the geriatric demographic, the mentally impaired and some of the terminally ill.
I see no future in trying to change the minds of internet savvy literate types, although I will continue to do my best to disrupt their dialouge. But without the help of a sympathetic moderator, even that is much more difficult that it used to be.
Anyway, as always, I shall continue to strive for the "faith".
Yours truly, Todd
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