Attorneys for a woman who alleges sexual abuse by a lay teacher at a Roman Catholic high school have asked a judge to hold the bishop of the Diocese of Orange in contempt of court.The motion, filed in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana, alleges that Bishop Tod D. Brown sent a key church official to Canada for unspecified medical treatment one week after a judge ordered him to complete a sworn deposition in the case.
Plaintiff's attorneys had stopped an earlier deposition by Monsignor John Urell after he became distraught.
According to the filing, Orange County Superior Court Judge Gail Andler ordered Urell to complete his testimony at a hearing on Aug. 30, but Urell left the country on Sept. 6.
Urell's testimony is critical to the plaintiff's case because he was responsible for handling all allegations of sexual abuse against the diocese, said John Manly, the plaintiff's attorney.
He was also expected to testify at trial, which is scheduled to begin next month.
Brown, who was deposed in the same case last week, said Urell went to the Southdown Institute in Ontario, Canada, for medical treatment.
Brown testified that he made the decision to send Urell out of the country although he knew Urell "had given a deposition and was going to be called back for further deposition."
Urell's attorney, Patrick Hennessey, did not immediately return a phone message left after business hours.
Brown's attorney, Peter Callahan, called the filing by the plaintiff's attorneys a "bullying tactic" and said that Urell's illness was serious and legitimate.
According to its Web site, the Southdown Institute offers "residential and outpatient psychological treatment and spiritual guidance to clergy and vowed religious."
Venus Soltan, a plaintiff's attorney, said she believes the diocese wanted to suppress Urell's testimony because of his extensive knowledge of sexual abuse allegations, including four pending cases that involve alleged molestation at Mater Dei High School.
"It is just one more in a long line of things where they're trying to hide the facts," she said. "Urell knows too much and they don't want him to talk."
A hearing on the motion is set for Oct. 18, but attorneys expect it will be moved up.
The lawsuit was filed by a 26-year-old woman who alleges that lay teacher and coach Jeff Andrade had sex with her multiple times when she was a 16-year-old student at Mater Dei.
Andrade has admitted in a deposition to having sex with the student. He was fired in 1997, but police didn't file charges.
The Diocese of Orange settled about 90 cases of sexual abuse in 2004 for $100 million, the largest clergy abuse settlement at the time. The current case is the first to be filed since that global settlement.
In a related development, police in Bakersfield said they have no records indicating they investigated sexual abuse allegations against Brown himself that date back more than 40 years.
Brown, the highest-ranking church official for Orange County Catholics, said during the same deposition last week that he was falsely accused in 1997 of molesting a young boy in the mid-1960s.
He said an internal investigation by the Diocese of Fresno, where he worked at the time of the alleged molestation, turned up no evidence to support the claims.
The Diocese of Orange said last week that the internal report had been handed over to Kern County prosecutors, who declined to press charges.
Kern County District Attorney Edward R. Jagels said he had a "faint recollection" of the case, adding he forwarded it to the Bakersfield Police Department for investigation.
But Bakersfield police can't find any paperwork on the case and the former lieutenant in charge of the sex crimes unit does not recall it, said Bakersfield police Sgt. Greg Terry.
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