By Kay Ebeling
“The Salesians admit these plaintiffs have been abused by Father Miani.” Ray Boucher spoke to jurors this morning. The lead plaintiff attorney said settlement talks began during jury selection and the jurors' presence, ready to hear the case after four days of voir dire, urged the settlement forward. Having the Salesians admit Father Miani raped these four persons as children and likely others “will have an impact on the plaintiffs’ lives forever,” Boucher said, thanking jurors as the 17 cases settled this morning for $19.4 million dollars.
Wayne Mason, who flies in from Texas to litigate for the Salesian Religious Order was tearful, saying, “the conduct of this particular priest was something awful the men of the Salesians Society were ashamed of.” He turned to the plaintiffs and said, “I’m sorry,” with sadness. Morse added there are so many men in the Salesians who are not like Miani.
The "mansion" in San Francisco, the Salesian Provincial House, will be sold to cover part of the cost of the settlement.
Lead plaintiff witness Lester Howse, came all the way from Winnipeg on the east coast of Canada to LA Superior Court this morning, determined to testify about his knowledge of Miani molesting a boy in 1957. What Lester Howse would have said on the stand, he said to my camera, and the video will be up at City of Angels Network as soon as it processes through YouTube, stay tuned.
The number of witnesses, the amount of evidence, plus the presence of a jury ready after four days of voir dire undoubtedly pressured the Salesians to settle these remaining cases. The same team of attorneys here to defend the Salesians in LA are still fighting plaintiffs in San Francisco, continuing to appeal and delay a settlement that was ordered by a jury to Joey Piscitelli in 2006.
What Ray Boucher was going to say in opening statements was “point out the 1948 letter from Italy” which would have been a key piece of evidence in the trial. The letter proves the Salesians Society knew of Miani's proclivities before sending him to North America in the late 1940s.
The 1948 letter will be attached as evidence in the case files, which City of Angels will dive in and start perusing over the next weeks.
“The Salesians were aware of at least one molestation by Miani as far back as 1948,” Boucher said.
He had more witnesses ready to come down from Canada to testify about “Father Jim” at St. Mary’s School in Edmonton, the number of witnesses who would come depended on how long the trial went on, Boucher said after the hearing, implying the list of witnesses would have gone on and on.
“The Salesians are admitting they need to bring about change,” said Boucher.
This morning’s actions end the global settlement, the 500 plus cases that came about after a window of opportunity opened in 2003. For that one year the state suspended the statute of limitations on child sex crimes, and persons in the state of California who had been raped at any time as children could file civil lawsuits, no matter how far in the past the episodes took place.
The 17 cases that settled this morning are the last of the cases from Los Angeles that resulted from the 2003 window in the statute of limitations in California.
However, several lawyers from Kiesel Boucher Larson said there are more clients coming forward, more cases against the LA Archdiocese coming.
The state of Pennsylvania is currently hearing and considering the Child Victim Act, HB 1137, which will open a similar window for two years for persons raped as children, and permanently put the window for reporting abuse at the age of 50. We'll be reporting more about HB 1137 in Pennsylvania shortly here at City of Angels.
I was saving that picture above of Leila Nourani for the trial. She was one of the defense attorneys who fascinated me, and I was so looking forward to drawing her and Helen and Cheryl, but I really don't have the wardrobe to cover a jury trial. Also I have these two other jobs that pay the bills and they were going to have to go on the back burner.
Don't worry. Now that the Salesians have settled I will be able to access all the documents, even the ones squirreled away by the "research attorney" during most of the pretrial months. All the documents from the Salesians cases will be there in the 6th and Commonwealth courthouse on the 14th floor under the care of Javier.
Will be document diving by next week about Miani and all the rest of them. For now have to go back to work on raw videos for America's Greatest Dog, another brain challenging reality TV show in development here in East Hollywood.
Putting in time codes when they bark...
Onward. . .
9 comments:
Once again, they drag race to the cliff,swearing they'll go over the edge and take you with them........then, as the cliff approaches, they stop the car, get out and say you win.
How much did the Salesians waste on lawyers trying to make the victims/survivors in this case take less than they deserve?
Answer: It doesn't matter, because the laity will gladly cover the bill. They might bitch and moan a bit, but they'll pay like always.
Which begs another question; why did the Salesians drag it out if they knew,( and they did know ) they couldn't win and that they would have to settle.
IMO it's just "pure evil". They do this, all of the orders do this scorched earth bullshit, because they hate victims, and because they can afford it.
Which is why I have less respect for the laity with each passing day. They are truly the ultimate enablers.
I look forward to hearing about SNAP from Clohessey.
To the idiot who was questioning Kay's credentials...I think most expect this sort of thing from those who have something to hide.
The closer Kay gets to uncover facts someone wants to stay hidden, the louder the false accusations and other lies will become.
Based on the settlement, that's $1.14 million (on average) per victim.
The Salesians got off for LESS than the Roger Mahony settlement deal, that would have been over $25.6 million to the don Bosco Pedophile Club, not the $19.4 million reported in this post(of course plus legal costs)...
No doubt the structuring of the deal will be a drawn out affair also, on actual monies changing hands, which is also part of the Salesian scorched earth M-O.
Should ANYONE trust the Salesians, roger Mahony or the Vhurch Curia on correction? HELL NO.
LAITY STOP DONATING, unti all guilty superior, cardinal and bishop are each punished and lose their jobs.
Let's not forget that PR firms funded by the Bish Club hire people (sociopaths!) to target certain websites to create confusion and diversion from the subject (priests raping children and dioceses enabling, protecting, transferring and promoting them).
At times, this blog has experienced such targeting. Remember Tipsy Gayboy Tod (Tamberg)
NB, anyone who continues to support the ongoing criminal enterprise known as the RCC by dropping money into the Sunday collection basket, is funding these creeps.
The Salesian lawyers have continued to lie about and minimize the extent of corruption in the order. So, just in case anyone missed this (an excerpt from a SNAP press release):
"This settlement changes nothing, however, about the Salesians’ horrific and continuing pattern of protecting and shuffling predator priests. A lengthy investigation by the Dallas Morning News found that more than 200 Salesian clerics who’ve been credibly accused of child sex crimes yet have been transferred from country to country. In 2004, 30 of these predators faced criminal action (either convictions or pending charges) in one nation but had fled to another nation and were living freely.
And even now, a Salesian parish in San Francisco (Sts. Peter & Paul) holds the disturbing distinction of housing the highest number of predators of any Catholic parish in the US."
Ebeling permits and encourages anti-gay rhetoric on her blog site. Why?
Looks like the paid shill for the ongoing criminal enterprise known as the LA Archdiocese is back!
hrh - who posts unders several alias that we all know well - never misses a chance to sling anti-gay slurs on anyone he/she (probably a frustrated homosexual anyway)is angry with. And Ebeling won't stop it. She calls it "truth."
Yawn.
ACT UP is a cyber bigot trying to deflect criminal culpability away from GUILTY Roger Mahony!
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