How many believe Catholic priests will lie under oath to cover up sex crimes? Every potential juror raised their hands

*****
By Kay Ebeling

One of the questions was, “How many of you believe the Catholic Church has covered up sex crimes?” Every potential juror in the first day of voir dire raised their hand, in the Salesian cases which settled before going to trial this week in LA. At another point attorneys asked, how many of you think a Catholic priest will lie under oath to protect the church and, again, every one of them raised their hands.

Emilie Elias is a no-nonsense judge who was really glaring down from the bench just like the picture at left in the settlement hearing Wednesday in LA Superior Court. She presides in a community full of no-nonsense people. I looked at that jury and they were ready, savage with pencils poised to find a hundred reasons to award punitive damages if the cases went to trial. The Salesian defense was not going to be able to do the dance around justice they pulled off in San Francisco in 2006. Wayne Morse slouched home to Texas in tears.

The day before the settlement in LA, a jury in Vermont came back with the largest civil award in the state's history, $7,750,000 in punitive damages against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, which might have been on the Salesians attorneys' mind Tuesday night when they agreed to settle. One altar boy from Vermont held out, refused to settle with about 18 other cases earlier this year, insisted on a jury trial, and was awarded $950,000 compensatory along with the record breaking $7.75 million award in punitive damages. The Burlington verdict, reached by the jury in less than five hours, is a signal to the Roman Catholic Church. People who serve on juries are ready to award massive amounts to plaintiffs when given the chance to decide punitive damages.

In a phone interview Friday morning, plaintiff attorney Tony DeMarco described voir dire: “The judge’s perspective was, okay, everybody knows about the settlements in LA last year, that's a given.”

The judge instructed the jury: “You've got to ask about the facts of this case, this particular case. The jury has to be fair on the facts of this case, listen to evidence and render on the facts here. Not on the other cases in LA last year.”

It’s likely impossible to find 11 people in Los Angeles who wouldn't find the archdiocese and all its Manchurian responders guilty.

The judge realized the predicament and resolved it with a legal swipe which is apparently Emilie Elias’ style. Earlier I observed that instead of pretrial hearings, Judge Emilie Elias did away with about 27 motions in limine from the defendants for these cases by bringing all the attorneys into her chambers to talk over refreshments, then looking at each of them squarely and saying, Listen. . .

DeMarco said. Sure it was likely there would be a huge award from the jury as in Vermont if we went to trial, but then the cases would spend years in appeals.

In Vermont less than 24 hours after the 7 plus million in punitives to one altar boy, the case was under appeal.

Evidence from the 2008 Salesian cases in LA will dribble out.
And be reported here at City of Angels

In other deposition testimony, Howse had revealed that all the boys at St. Mary's in Edmonton avoided the infirmary. They knew if you went to the infirmary, you were going to be sexually molested by Father Jim Miani or one of the others. (See Lester Howse in the video at top of page.)

Howse said kids would vomit in the closet and have raging fevers but refuse to go to the infirmary because of the sexual abuse at St. Mary’s in Edmonton, negligenty supervised by the Salesians who have to pay $19.5 million to 17 plaintiffs after the decision in LA Superior Court this week.

In the settlement hearing Ray Boucher for the plaintiffs told the jury that their very presence weighed on defense attorneys, just their being there had power in the move to settle the cases.

Me, I saw that jury, and I think they couldn't wait to go for punitive damages in the triple millions, I could see the rage in their faces as they sat there, they were looking forward to passing judgment on the Salesians.

The plaintiff in the Salesian cases that settled spoke to me about sitting in on voir dire:

“I got the feeling immediately that the jury connected with me. Still it wasn’t easy to know that my life was going to be out there.

"All of a sudden you realize what depths they will go to, to not be held accountable, to make me look guilty instead."

“They weren't going to get away with it," she said, "because I said to my family, look I made some mistakes and you're going to hear about them in the trial. I'm not perfect.”

DeMarco said, “Steve McFeely stands up and starts asking questions and he is not someone people like. He was trying to get the jury riled. But then they all raised their hands. I thought he was trying to get the whole jury pool booted.”

DeMarco said, “With the evidence we had, all the evidence we were going to be able to present, and I think Judge Elias would have let all of it in, the jury could have put the Salesians out of business.”

COMING THIS WEEKEND :

The Salesians Society say they will sell the mansion on Franklin Street in San Francisco to pay for the settlement in LA.

What are they going to do with the other several million they'll make on the real estate sale?

ALSO:

Document protocol.

Now that all the cases are settled, DeMarco is preparing a motion for release of personnel documents of every perpetrator in the LA and San Diego cases settled last year.

All to be explained in posts coming up this weekend. . .

Jury Selection could be over by Thursday PM, opening statements as early as Monday, in first trial in LA concerning pedophile priests

******
By Kay Ebeling
Jury selection could be complete as early as Thursday afternoon, according to a source in the first Salesian cases trial, which will be the first time a case concerning pedophile priests has gone before a jury in Los Angeles. Opening statements could start as early as Monday May 12th.

Monday of last week when jury selection began, jurors who could not afford to serve for a 5 to 6 week trial made their cases to Judge Emilie Elias. Since then, the task has been finding jurors who have not heard too much about the settlements between the Los Angeles Archdiocese and more than five hundred plaintiffs last July.

Apparently they have run into no serious problems, and opening statements will likely begin early next week.

City of Angels is not covering jury selection, since our reporter is also a victim of a crime similar to ones to be discussed in the trial, and we don't want to taint a potential juror. We are staying away from Jury Selection but will be covering the trial and interviewing participants on camera for videos at City of Angels Network as the trial progresses.

We will post here as soon as a jury is selected and a date and time set for opening statements.

The trial will be in LA Superior Court, Department 308, on Commonwealth & Sixth Street, 14th Floor, Judge Emilie Elias' court.

For background on the trial read previous posts here.

Meanwhile at City of Angels Network we keep adding and changing videos daily, up top above the headline and down the left hand column of the blog, so keep coming back.

======
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
===============

Thanks to three of my best readers for "getting it" and clicking the PayPal button. Now I can buy shoes and a jacket rugged enough for trekking through the sleeze as the first Salesians trial progresses next week.

To the other 293 regular readers, please pay for readership and support the blog by clicking PayPal on the left with a high five or higher.

If only 100 readers would click with five dollars every three months. . .sigh. -ke

Right to sodomize children in private not guaranteed by First Amendment no matter what Salesian Society lawyers try to say

*****
By Kay Ebeling
The Salesians write: “The Society objects to the term ‘sexual misconduct’ on the grounds that it is vague and ambiguous” and on this point I agree with the defendants in the upcoming jury trial in LA. In fact all the terms used so far about crimes committed by pedophiles in the guise of Catholic priests have been too vague and ambiguous. It was sodomy on 6 year olds, drugging 8 year olds so that a few priests could rape them on film, using the once blessed sacraments and other elements of the Catholic Church as trappings to snare children and betray their families. “Sexual misconduct” implies pinching in the lunch line.

Just as "Total Outrage" is what I felt when I read this by the defendants, "#14 FIRST AMENDMENT: The Society objects to each request to the extent that it infringes the free exercise of religion in violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the United States Constitution and Article 1 Section 4 of the California Constitution."

HOW DARE THEY equate protecting information in the personnel files of pedophile priests with the basic American right of worshiping God in the way you believe.

There’s a hearing Monday afternoon on the motion that produced the 14-plus objections, Plaintiffs' Motion To Compel further responses and production of documents. Plaintiffs also request documents of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles in the motion that will be heard May 5 at 2:00 pm in Superior Court Department 308.

I'm beginning to think the Salesian defense team is really an enemy cell planted here disguised as defense attorneys, their mission: to file motions and affect law and slowly destroy the very laws and freedoms which hold the United States of America together. Did any of these guys ever take a Civics Course, US Government 101?

SAY IT LIKE IT IS:
There were pedophiles among the priests and brothers, openly pursuing and ruining the lives of children, without interference, over a lot of years and the other priests and brothers knew about it and did nothing about it.

Plaintiffs write they seek

“Evidence of other Salesian priests and brothers molesting minors, and evidence of the Salesians having notice of those priests and brothers molesting.”
----------
In other words there were a lot of them doing it and a lot of them knew about it.
===============
Plaintiffs continued:

The perpetrators have no right to sexual privacy in illegal sexual conduct.

The perpetrators cannot reasonably expect their privacy rights in personnel records to overcome the compelling interest in disclosing allegations of childhood sexual abuse.

The First Amendment DOES NOT prohibit the production of these documents.

Plaintiff Motion to Compel Continued:

In the archbishop’s own 2004 Report To The People Of God the archbishop admitted that victims made accusations against at least 8 Salesian priests and brothers working in the Los Angeles area.

BR. MARK EPPERSON
BR. ANTHONY JUAREZ
FR. LARRY LORENZONI
BR. ERNEST MARTINEZ
FR. TITIAN JIM MIANI
BR. RALPH MURGUIA
BR. JUAN SANCHEZ
BR. JOHN VERHART

On December 19, 2007, plaintiffs served on the Salesians a request for production Set No. Five requesting the production of personnel and confidential files on these eight priests.

January 24 2008, plaintiffs served on Salesians a request for production of business records on the archbishop for files on three of these priests

Lorenzoni
Miani
Juan Sanchez

February 21, 2008, Salesians served objection to the deposition subpoena on Fathers Lorenzoni, Miani, and Sanchez.

February 4, 2008, Lorenzoni’s attorney PAUL GASPARI served objection to Lorenzoni deposition subpoena

----------
ME: Consider the environment the Salesians created at its schools. With all the pedophilia rampant there, if Salesian managers didn't know they are just as guilty as if they did know. It's inexplainable negligence either way.

HOW COULD THEY NOT KNOW IT WAS GOING ON!!!!?????
===============

There was a brotherhood of pedophiles operating out in the open and everyone knew about it and now they are trying to squelch it

The Salesians Society, a religious order of the Roman Catholic Church is audacious enough to do do this tap dance in a public courtroom

IN FRONT OF JUDGE EMILIE ELIAS
Who Got To Meet Tom Cruise!!!!

Found this about the judge in the upcoming Salesian trials:

She’s a USC Law School Grad class of 1970, so either she’s even older than I am or she was a child prodigy who went to college at 12. I thought she was younger than me. My lifestyle really played out on my face.

December 2001:

Hollywood film star Tom Cruise dropped a $100m lawsuit against publisher Michael Davis after a retraction, which was approved by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Emilie Elias.

Cruise said he was "pleased" after a publisher retracted his claim to possess a video tape showing him engaged in homosexual acts.

Hmm, the decision in the Tom Cruise case was made in chambers, not in open court, by Judge Emilie Elias.

Uh-oh, I’m in trouble.

Judge Emilie Elias also ruled in favor of a SLAPP motion: ruling that two bloggers posting lies on a website were Cyber terrorists -- causing financial harm to a corporate entity even though they did not stand to benefit financially.

-----------
Am I causing financial harm to the LA Archdiocese with my blog? Am I a cyber terrorist in this judge's eyes????!!!!
================

"BULLETIN: Los Angeles Superior Court, June 18, 2003: The alleged cyber terrorists Ian Leicht and Sayyed Bashir were handed a resounding defeat from Judge Emilie Elias this morning as she ruled against Leicht’s SLAPP motion to quash the lawsuit against them by Wellington Burke."

I am not a cyber terrorist.

But I'm not going back to jury selection. . .

Except maybe Friday afternoon to get blasted and roll around the aisle in my blue chair.

All I write is what they say in open court. I can’t help it if it makes them look like fools.

Onward. . .

Court baffled over what to do with blogger in press seat as jury selection begins for Salesian trial in LA Superior Court

By Kay Ebeling
I thought they were saying hello to me so I waved back. But those weren’t welcome smiles on the attorneys’ faces as jury selection began for the Salesian cases jury trial in LA Superior Court. As I hunched down I could hear whispering from the judge and lawyers at the front. You know how you can tell someone is talking about you.

The clerk said I had to move from the first to the second row. Then the judge and lawyers beckoned and he picked up a blue easy chair and lifted it over the railing so I could sit in the aisle. The blue chair was on wheels so I could move up and down the aisle as the attorneys argued over where it was okay for me to sit. I rolled down the aisle when jurors were lining up in back, I rolled up to the back when they were talking with a juror up front.

Then from all the way in the back I heard, "If she’s going to be in here all the time, we need to move to another room.” It was a female shriek, I doubt it was the judge, but I was too far in the back to see. I was drawing fast, as I knew I better finish this sketch quick. In a kind of ceremony, the attorneys got up and walked up the aisle, right past me, and out the back exit. After lunch, I sat in my blue chair in the aisle, but the chairs up front were vacant. The judge and attorneys were questioning jurors one by one in the other room.

The first issue for jurors is time, whether they can serve on a 30 to 35 day trial. The jurors still in the room want to plead hardship over serving 6 to 7 weeks. The other 300 or so potential jurors had gone home to return Monday May 5.

I hadn’t been there three minutes before I looked up and saw all the attorneys turned around and looking at me. Honest. I thought they were saying hello. So I waved hello and smiled. Okay not proper protocol in the middle of jury selection but I’d just fought metro rails and buses for more than an hour to get there, they're not always reliable, and I was flushed, it was hot, I was late. The two front rows may have been filled with reporters two hours earlier when proceedings began, but now as usual, I was the only one.

It was absurd. First they made me move from the front row to the second row, then out into the aisle. Then up and down the aisle and into the back. Now potential jurors who saw all that are probably Google searching to find out who I am. If the law had just left me alone, I would have heard very little. I watch Law & Order. I know not to interfere with jurors.

At one of the approved points on the aisle, I settled down to continue my sketch and a juror who was still within earshot of me said something like, Do you come here often? And I said, “Shh, I'm a journalist, I'm not allowed to talk to you.” But it was too late.

Javier stood over me with new orders from the judge. He and a security guard pushed my chair on wheels up the aisle all the way to the back. When they asked the jurors to start lining up ten at a time in the back, I just had to wheel down the aisle to the center of the room. But by then the judge and attorneys were gone.

Nobody can figure out what to do with me. I'm the press, for what it's worth, moreso than any other media in the city when it comes to the Clergy Cases, they have to let me stay there, but NOBODY wants me there, the judge plaintiff or defense lawyers.

I sit where Javier tells me to sit. He comes back a minute later and says sit in that seat instead. So I sit in the second row. Get settled, take out my laptop fold my case get out my sketch board look up see all those faces. I end up on wheels rolling up and down the aisles. That still doesn't satisfy them and they all get up and leave. All because of me and my blog.

That look on their faces stays with me until next morning. I settle down and start sketching.

If I go back next Monday I’ll be set up with my own little easy chair on wheels. But I won’t be able to see or hear anything as it will all be going on “in the other room.”

From my perch in the back, if I sat on my feet, I could barely see the proceedings up front. I angled, squirmed up to see over the heads so I could at least finish my sketch. I knew I better draw that picture fast as I could hear a little of what was being said, even from the back. There was a lot of tension about me being in the room.

Funny thing is I’ve felt that way so many times before. . .

We broke for lunch. Javier said come back at 1:30 but don’t be waving to the jurors. Maybe that was it. When I first sat down in my first approved seat, this black lady with white hair in the jury pool gave me such warm smile I had to smile back.

I promised Javier, "Don't worry, I won't even make eye contact with anyone."

The irony is not lost on me. You see, I started this blog mostly to try to break the concrete block of isolation that's bound my life for about 50 years. I want to meet people, get out more, sit over coffee and klatch. I don't do those things very often. Normal people do those things. I always end up in a room by myself.

Now here I am in a room with a few hundred people and it’s okay for me to be there, I even get the most comfortable chair, but I can’t interact with any person in the room. I thought the press covered jury selection.

Outside in the hall, I overheard the room number where they were sending jurors. I could have gone down there and followed a potential juror out of the room and gotten one or two to talk about the experience, tell me the questions they asked.

But hey, I watch Law & Order. I'm not stupid enough to mess with the jury.

It’s just, I'm just a blog. I don't know if the LA Times was there earlier, I got there late, I had to finish something for one of my other three jobs first.

As I left, Javier said to me, “She just doesn't want you to hear what they're saying to the jurors.” Isn't that my right? To hear what they say to the jurors?

Jury selection continues Monday May 5 in the morning and still on calendar for that afternoon at the Commonwealth courthouse is this (from online Superior Court Case Summary for JCCP4286)

05/05/2008 at 02:00 pm in department 308 at 600 South Commonwealth Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90005

Motion to Compel

(FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS BY THE SALESIANS TOP'S REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS SET 5 AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS BY THE ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF L.A. (RE BC308472))

That's regarding the next Salesian Case Jury trial scheduled for August 25th. The remaining motions in limine in the Miani case coming up must have been worked out between attorneys behind closed doors. . . .

I’ll write about the upcoming motion to compel next post.

Onward. . .

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

*****
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.

*****
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.

--------
Trial Expected to Last Five to Six Weeks
========

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. . .

Judge breezes through motions to exclude evidence and testimony, in Salesian Religious Order civil case trial in LA, re pedophile priest Titian Miani

*****
By Kay Ebeling
The cops crouched behind squadcars with guns pointed, cordoning off the street down by Wilshire Boulevard. I had to sprint eight blocks to connect again with a rerouted bus, due to police activity. And that's just what I went through to get home at lunch to boost my laptop battery. The first of several cases against the Salesian religious order head to a jury trial in LA Superior Court Department 308 this month, and so far I'm the only journalist covering it.

At one point Tuesday Ray Boucher jumped up angry at Steve McFeely: “For him to say there’s no evidence when his defendant has destroyed evidence,” and I thought of a recent phone call with Joey Piscitelli. When Salesians finally turned over personnel files from his case in 2006, they were empty, he said. “30 years of personnel files with nothing in them.”

Judge Emilie Elias slammed through defendants’ motions in limine so fast in Tuesday's hearing, Wayne Mason, attorney for the Salesians hadn’t even gotten out of his chair to object before the judge denied two of them. Elias directed the hearing through 15 of the motions, and the other 15 or so will likely be resolved when the hearing continues Thursday morning.

Then begins jury selection and the trial.

Judge Elias did not appear familiar with Servants of the Paracletes. When the hearing got to defendants’ motion to exclude evidence or mention of the former New Mexico pedophile priest treatment center, Judge Elias said:

"Re servants of the Par-Par-- how do you pronounce it?"

EVERY ATTORNEY IN THE ROOM: Paracletes.

CHURCH ATTORNEY TOM DELANEY: They didn't start their infamous psycho sex abuse program until the 1970s.

JUDGE ELIAS: Not ‘til the 70s Do you agree?

PLAINTIFF ATTORNEY HELEN ZUKIN: What counsel is referring to is, the Servants of the Paracletes went to a different approach for dealing with pedophiles in 1977, but in the 1940s the Paracletes were treating pedophiles. In a 1952 letter a priest writes, “This is an old story for us, dealing with priests who deal with the young.”

JUDGE: This is when they wanted to buy the island?

ZUKIN: They dealt with pedophiles in a steady stream. In 1977 they went to a different approach. They weren’t going to put them on an island, but put them in a different treatment program.

Church Attorney Steve McFeely made his presence known:

MCFEELY: I have to object. There is NO evidence that the Salesians EVER sent ANYONE to this place for a sexual abuse problem. No foundation for it AT ALL. This is GROSS Speculation.

JUDGE: The question is, if this is going on at the facility in New Mexico, you're right. But these priests could have been sent there for alcoholism.

(ALL THE PLAINTIFF REPS IN THE ROOM AND ME WITH THEM GIVE OUT AN AUDIBLE SIGH.)

In the clergy sex crime “community” everybody knows, anyone sent to the Paracletes in their 30 years they operated was probably a pedophile.

Especially if the priest is also a party to these cases.

Judge Fromholz would have known that.

When Haley Fromholz retired in December, Emilie Elias inherited the Clergy Cases, what's left of them. There was one holdout in the 560 cases settled last year in LA. The Salesians Religious Order continue their battle even after the LA Archdiocese has paid out the 17 cases that were the Salesian part of the settlement. The Salesians never admit any of their priests are guilty. So if they lose these trials, they have to repay Cardinal Mahony, if they win, the Salesians' debt to the archdiocesee is forgiven. . .this is Reconciliation 2008 style.

JUDGE ELIAS: This motion is granted, the Servants of the Paracletes cannot be used in opening arguments but motions in limine can always be changed. The evidence can be entered if someone brings it up.

*****
'The 1962'
Salesians claim none of them saw the Crimen Solicitaciones document that the Vatican put out in 1962, a document the attorneys have come to call "1962."

Tony Demarco said, "It was sent to every parish and religious order throughout the world in 1962.

"For them now to say it wasn’t received by the Salesians. . ."

Wayne Mason replied: "The Salesians have testified none of them were aware of 1962."

*****
REPREHENSIBLE
There were 12 attorneys for the defense and four for the plaintiffs in court this morning and arguments were often about the legal concept of "reprehensibility." At one point the judge seemed to talk in circles saying the attorneys were talking in circles.

JUDGE ELIAS: “Reprehensibility is them not doing anything about it. Not that they did it but that Salesians did nothing about it. If they did nothing about it, that presupposes somebody had to know about it.”

MASON: With regards to BC, who has testified in deposition for this case, he did not provide notice about the relationship he had with Miani.

ME: Calling what happened to a young boy with Father Titian Miani a "relationship" is reprehensible in itself, Mr. Wayne Mason from Texas, flown in special to defend the incredibly reprehensible Salesian religious order.

In that same phone call, Joey Piscitelli described his cross examination by Wayne Mason during his Salesian case jury trial in San Francisco in 2006. “He’s a Bible banger,” said Piscitelli. “When I was on the witness stand, Mason said, do you believe in God. He screamed out, ‘I mean Our Lord Jesus Christ, do you believe in him?’ He was looking at the jury with big eyes.”

Because Joey had passed out a leaflet that mentioned God, Mason was able to run with this line of questioning. “He said, ‘Have you ever invoked the word of Our Lord Jesus Christ?’ in a l-o-o-n-g loud voice.”

*****
The way Steve McFeely Talks:
"There is NO evidence that the Salesians EVER sent ANYONE to this place."
Steve McFeely is a scary dude. I’d hate to have him stand over me hollering in that voice. The words in caps are triple decibles, with a tone that cuts, slices through any thought in your head. His tongue is sharp with a ripping force.

Thank God for the Justice System or guys like Steve McFeely would be able to boss everybody around just by throwing around their weight and volume.

DeMarco says: Two priests sodomized the boy on the same desk using the same words. Their constitution shows an expectation of reporting-

Then they all started talking at once, until Boucher burst out in anger:

“For him to say there’s no evidence when his defendant has destroyed evidence.”

*****
The Salesians claim none of their hierarchy ever saw Crimen Solicitaciones which the attorneys call “1962.”

MASON: The Salesians have testified that none of them were aware of this document. All the ones that are alive that were around at that time say they were not aware of this document. It may have been in the hands of the Catholic Church.

The judge stops the banter and looks at Wayne Mason.

JUDGE: Now. The Salesians are the third largest religious order in the church, is that correct? So isn’t it reasonable that the Salesians would have received a copy of 1962?

MASON: (STUTTERING) I don't think, uh--

DELANEY: [BABBLES SOMETHING ABOUT WHAT THE JURY WILL THINK]

JUDGE: I'm inclined to deny.

*****
JUDGE: Number 4: Reference to the Catholic church, the Salesians want to be considered totally separate from the Catholic Church:

A snicker goes around the courtroom.

CONTINUED WEDNESDAY:

Now here's a side trip, in memory of Hunter Thompson

In San Francisco the plaintiffs nicknamed Steve McFeely Mr. Eraserhead. The appearance of all the attorneys defending the Salesians deserves comment here.

All but two of the 12 defense attorneys are Ugly-y-y-y-.

I mean these Salesian Defense Attorneys have been worked over with a ugly stick. I apologize, guys, but it’s something you can’t help but notice.

Almost each defense attorney has something off kilter on their face, or a strange shaped body, hair that would be greasy except these demons give in to human practices such as daily bathing so they appear clean.

I don't know any other way to describe them. Every single one of the defense attorneys but the two from Northern Californa has an amazing trait of ugliness, such as a face totally covered with pockmarks, a face so elongated and oval with pointed appendages or covered with bumps that it appears to be a mask or the little witch girl in Little Lulu comics. Much has been said about Steve McFeely’s puffy face surrounded by a puffy bald head, it’s incredible.

It's like these individuals have collected themselves together to play out some horrific lifetime karma.

Even without the obvious demonic element one brings up, considering these defense attorneys are defending priests who used sacraments in the church to rape children, it is extremely strange that SO MANY of these defense attorneys are JUST PLAIN Ugly.

At the same time attorneys for the Plaintiffs stride in showing they come from Beverly Hills and they fit in that town, with the clothes, the faces, stunningly beautiful faces, the kinds of faces that make people stop in the street. The plaintiff attorneys glow.

IRONICALLY ENOUGH

Attorneys for the plaintiffs have karma to go through life beautiful, and all the good things that happen to a person because of that.

So even though there were 12 or more attorneys for the defense and 4 for the plaintiffs, you just know which ones have got God on their side.

It just has to be said, it's as plain as day

Sorry, guys, but when it's an 800 pound elephant in the room, I have to mention it.

*****
Speaking of Church Attorneys:
Lee Potts, attorney for Cardinal Roger Mahony, was there taking notes in a chicken scrawl

A couple lawyers showed up from Hennigan, the Archdiocese’s lead law firm. Lee Potts sat sort of in front of me squiggling on a yellow legal pad with a red felt tip pen. His penmanship keeps anyone looking over his shoulder from reading it.

Lee Potts took notes for Cardinal Roger Mahony throughout the hearing in red felt marker chicken scratches on the yellow sheets

I think Leila Nourami as she adjusts to life in America is beginning to realize she’s missed out on something. If she hadn’t been born in Iran, raised in England, then educated in Paris, she would not be so culturally deprived. She might have been a Southern California femme enjoying the topography here.

She'd get some sun on her face.

I think if Leila Nourami had grown up in LA or Orange County she would have ended up at Berkeley applying her jackhammer intelligence to radical political theology.

But for some reason she’s devoting a potentially stellar career to working with a law firm that has her defending pedophile priests in one of the sleaziest religious orders in the Catholic Church, the Salesians Religious Order.

Sleazy
The defense team has a greasy aura
And they defend pedophile Catholic priests in the Salesians

*****
My Perilous Trek Home For Lunch:
As I'm pulling my laptop on wheels up Western Avenue running away from the police activity on Wilshire, I remember the judge saying

“We'll have to talk about reprehsibility over the lunch period. I'm not going to allow in any 'where there’s smoke there’s fire' evidence.”

All the attorneys are sitting in the judge’s chambers munching on chicken salad sandwiches while I'm stranded out here at Third and Western with buses passing me by, I thought and cried.

Cried for about a half hour, added a good 27 more lines around my eyes.

Then at home with my laptop battery boosting, I listened to The Massage (linked at bottom of page), and then as I bent my head in prayer, Kevin Nash went over the first part of The Book of James, again. The Book of James gets quoted a lot in ghetto scripture readings.

Consider it joy when you face hardship.

I thought of how much more lean muscle mass I developed as I pulled my laptop up Western Avenue, then several more blocks to get from Western to my home.

All things ARE working for a greater good.

I don't know if Christ was really Son of God. I just know when you live a Christian life, wonderful spiritual doors open up for you.

PREVIEW OF PART TWO CONTINUED WEDNESDAY

BOUCHER JUMPS UP: Miani has denied that he ever molested a child. The defendants are calling our clients alleged victims.

JUDGE: Is Miani coming to testify? [DISCUSSION ] Okay the answer is, we don’t know.

(Tomorrow’s post, more from Tuesday’s hearing, will go up at City of Angels Blog in the afternoon Pacific Time)

Onward and don't forget to click my PayPal button. . .

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

*****
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.
*****

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. . .

He got to them at Arrow Bear Camp, in his car, in hotel rooms, in his office at St. John Bosco School, in family homes, now Motion to Strike April 1st

*****
By Kay Ebeling
Catholic Church Attorneys try again to have civil cases against them thrown out of court next week in a hearing that was first on calendar April 7th then moved up to March 19th, then slipped to March 21st. Now the Motion to Strike hearing takes place on April Fools’ Day. First jury trial in LA regarding a Salesian pedophile priest is still on calendar April 14th.

Re Father Titian Miani: “The first documented incident of child molestation took place in 1947," reads a plaintiff motion from June 2007. "On a retreat with other clerics Miani ‘attempted a dishonest act’ with a 13 year old boy who ‘knew how to resist.’ (Salesians try again to have the 1947 exhibit dismissed in hearings on motions in limine April 10th.)

In Miani’s personnel file translated into English are several documents from the 1940s from reverends and others with very Italian names that City of Angels unfortunately did not copy into notes last June.

“Still he was ordained in 1955 into the Salesian order."

Once Titian (Jim) Miani came to St. John Bosco in 1958 he immediately began molesting children

His file includes a case of Father Jim “having his hand on a boy’s crotch. . ."

At the Bellflower high school, "Miani immediately began molesting children and tartgeted 8th grader Plaintiff (Ron H). Despite the so-called Salesian “mantra” of “no two alone,” Miani repeatedly isolated Ron, abusing him in his “off limits” bedroom in the priests’ quarters, as well as on a trip to the Salesian campsite at Arrow Bear. (as exhibited in Declarations and depositions attached)

Ron reported the abuse to a priest.

“No one stepped in to save Ron,” continues the plaintiffs’ motion.

Salesian Clergymen “are quite possibly the most dangerous and despicable child molesters in the Catholic clergy.”

Today’s Salesian Society has made a mockery of Giovanni Melchior Bosco’s “dedication to guide and protect vulnerable youth in 19th Century Italy” by knowingly permitting its priests to engage in egregious and outrageous practices towards children in their parishes.

Father Titan Miani.
Brother John Verhart.
Brother Anthony Juarez.
Brother Mark Epperson.
and Fr Larry Lorenzoni
As well as every Salesian Priest and Brother who knew of their habitual molestation of children --

-- used and manipulated the respect and reverence given to Catholic clergy in order to prey on innocent young boys and girls.

II:: THE NUMEROUS REPEATED, EGREGIOUS ACTS OF SALESIAN CLERGY CLEARLY ESTABLISH A PRIMA FACIE CASE

Quotes from earlier plaintiff documents in upcoming Salesians trial continue:

Miani worked at Salesian High School in Richmond until 1968 and then came back to St. John Bosco to “once again to work under his friend and Director, Father John Malloy.”

Miani was promoted to Prefect as well as Latin teacher.

Miani molested at least one more boy and two females who are all plaintiffs here now in this case. Plus other victims who are witnesses.

He got to them at Arrow Bear Camp, in hotel rooms on overnight stays, in his car on trips to Sebastopol, in Miani’s office during the school day, behind closed doors at St. John Bosco School. And in the family homes.

Malloy obviously knew about Miani’s proclivities in 1967, as shown by his letters, argue the plaintiffs.

“Despite 20 years of knowledge that Miani was a dangerous pedophile, the Salesian Order allowed Miani to leave the Salesians “for personal reasons.”

He then went to the Stockton Diocese in 1974 and nobody warned anybody in advance.

Titian Miani was finally arrested in 2003 and released weeks later due to the Stogner Decision.

“To this day, Father John Malloy states that since Miani was such a ‘model priest’ that he never had any reason to read his personnel file.”

City of Angels Blog will be there to cover the motion to strike April 1st -- if it happens -- pretrial motions April 10 and 11, and the jury trial April 14th.

Onward. . .

Salesians hold world record for pedophile priests -- guest writer Joey Piscitelli lists their names and connections to William Levada

*****
The Salesians go on trial in LA April 14. Plaintiffs say the Order let pedophile priest Titian Miani have access to children at St. John Bosco High in Bellflower. Piscitelli sued the Salesians in 2006. -- ke

By Joey Piscitelli
The Salesians Clergy of California have shattered the World Record for the most accused child molesters in one area, by a landslide. There is no religious order in the world that we know of that is even remotely close in the number of accused molesters. And the list is growing. At latest count, there are 21 local (California) Salesians accused and/or convicted pedophiles, 19 of them named as child molesters in lawsuits! This tally is so far off the charts.

The following Salesians have been accused of sex crimes in California, including abuse, molestation, rape, sodomy, lewd and lascivious conduct, felony child abuse, copulation, and sexual deviation: Fr. Larry Lorenzoni, Fr. Richard Presenti, Fr. Bernard Dabbenne, Fr. Steve Whelan, Bro. Sal Billante, Bro. Jesse Dominguez, Fr. Jim Miani, Fr. Harold Danielson, Bro. Mark Epperson, Fr. Mario Blanco, Bro. Anthony Juarez, Bro. Ernie Martinez, Fr. Emanual Palayo, Fr. Juan Sanchez, Bro. John Verhart, Fr. Fleming, Fr. Al Mengon, Bro. John Vas, Bro. Ralph Murguia, Bro. Dan Pacheco, and Mr. Sam Vitone.

Cardinal William Levada shielded and covered for so many Salesian accused molesters that victims of the Salesians have nicknamed the Salesian pedophiles -"Levada’s Boys". Still, Levada has shown no shame or remorse, nor has he apologized.

Several of the Salesian criminal record holders were shielded in San Francisco by Cardinal Levada himself. According to court testimony, Levada promoted Salesian molester, Fr. Bernard Dabbenne, to a top position for the West Coast, after a witness complained that Dabbenne had molested him. Dabbenne was later convicted when he was caught in the act of molestation by the SF Police.

Fr. Steve Whelan, was kept in ministry, with children, after Levada was told Whelan was being sued for child abuse. Whelan was found guilty by court trial, while he was still in active ministry with children.

Another Salesian friend of Cardinal Levada, Fr. Larry Lorenzoni, is an accused serial molester, and is scheduled to go on trial next month.

Fr. Larry Lorenzoni is known as a famous writer, and has penned a well known phrase that the Salesians are proud of:

"The average person, thinks he isn’t". (As in, the average person thinks he isn’t average. . . . clever)

Now, to this famous accused Salesian serial abuser, Fr. Lorenzoni, I dedicate this new phrase:

"The average Salesian molester, claims he isn’t".

Many of these Salesians are accused serial molesters, and even when convicted and found guilty by courts and jury trials, they continue to deny wrongdoing. Many of the confirmed Salesian molesters were transferred after reports of abuse against them were made.

Maybe it is the disgrace of being the World Record Holder accused clergy molesters that has made the Salesians of California the angry, unremorseful group they are today, or perhaps the lawsuits with countless victims.

In any case, many of these men are still around locally. The bottom line is, California Beware!

I would definitely recommend keeping your children away from this World Record Holder serial sexual predator group, the Salesian Religious Order. The list does not need to expand any more than it is already.

Joey Piscitelli
Salesians Victim
Northern California SNAP

Onward. . .