More than a year after the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego agreed to pay $198 million to 144 men and women who were sexually abused as children, an attorney has filed a court petition to try to block the release of files involving accused priests. The settlement last September included assurances that the histories of the accused offenders would be made public.
But in court papers filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, San Diego attorney Robert Jassoy has asked for a two-month postponement to give him time to get the court of appeals to rule on the legality of making them public.
Attorneys for the victims called Jassoy's petition a stall tactic and openly questioned who was paying Jassoy for his work.
Jassoy could not be reached for comment Wednesday morning. According to his petition, he is representing seven people who are among the accused offenders.
Rodrigo Valdivia, chancellor for the San Diego diocese, referred questions about who is paying Jassoy to the church's in-house counsel, who could not be reached for comment.
Valdivia said the diocese is prepared to make the files public. “We're ready to do that when the court requests us to do that,” he said.
Barbara Dorris, spokeswoman for a national victims rights group, was clearly frustrated by the court move and blamed the diocese.
“They'll give in on money but they are not going to give in on the documents. When you release the documents, you find out just how much they knew and for how long,” said Dorris, national outreach director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
Los Angeles attorney Anthony De Marco said he is preparing to oppose Jassoy's request on behalf of victims.“We want to see the truth come out so that people going forward, children going forward, can learn from the mistakes of the past,” De Marco said.
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(Source: UT)