Franciscans Settle

No Confidentiality Afforded to Abusive Priests

by Martha Sadler

More than 14 years after the whispers became public accusations
of child sexual abuse by Santa Barbaran Franciscan friars, a
settlement has finally been reached that will open church documents
to the public. Unlike the sealed and secret terms of most
settlements involving large amounts of money, plaintiffs in this
case insisted on the right to disclose evidence of three decades of
molestation, including the testimony of the abusive priests, their
protectors, and the now-adult victims. The settlement also awards
$28,450,000 to the 25 plaintiffs.

The lawsuit centered on eight priests who molested students at
St. Anthony’s Seminary High School and the Santa Barbara Boys
Choir, or took advantage of underage parishioners at the Santa
Barbara Mission. They are Fathers Robert Van Handel, Mario
Cimmarrusti, Gus Crumm, Dave Johnson, David Carriere, Chis Berbena,
and Brother Berard Connolly, and Brother Sam Cabot. Besides the
perpetrators, two additional priests, Father Xavier Harris and
Father Gino Piccoli, acknowledged as part of the settlement that
they failed to act on reports of abuse.

Santa Barbara attorney Tim Hale, who represented 13 of the
plaintiffs, said that if his clients sacrificed anything in the
settlement, it was the opportunity to confront their abusers, as
well as the other priests who kept it secret. “I know there are
clients who would have liked to see this battle fought all the way
through trial, but that would have been terribly, terribly
traumatic for others,” said Hale.

The material to be made public — according to the terms of the
agreement — includes the perpetrators’ personnel files, as well as
all of the court transcripts and audiovisual testimony. Among the
witnesses whose testimony could become public is Father Virgil
Cordano, who retired as pastor of the Santa Barbara parish in 1994.
Cordano claimed no knowledge of the abuse.

However, before the material is released, court battles still
loom over what portions the church or others can withhold from the
public. On September 5, the friars are to surrender those documents
along with their redactions, which the plaintiffs may in turn
challenge. Material that compromises the privacy rights of people
other than the molesting priests can be withheld from the public,
for example, unless its public importance outweighs those privacy
rights. If it reflects the church’s awareness of the abuse, or
indicates a cover-up, it cannot be redacted, according to the
settlement. All of that is a matter of argument and interpretation
by the court. The material will probably not become available to
the public until the beginning of next year.

Accusations against the priests first surfaced in 1990, and
ranged from allegations of priests playing doctor with boys in the
choir, to unlawful intercourse with seminary students. Most of the
plaintiffs were boys; two were girls. The lawsuit was initiated in
2002, shortly before the U.S. Supreme Court halted criminal
prosecution of the priests, ruling that the statute of limitations
had passed on the crimes. Two priests — Van Handel and Philip Wolf,
who later committed suicide — were convicted in Santa Barbara
courts before the deadline for criminal prosecution passed. Lawyers
for the plaintiffs and the defendants have been arguing for the
past four years in Los Angeles Superior Court. The settlement was
reached in May, but papers were finally signed by all the
plaintiffs this month.