Spokane7
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May 18, 2009 in City, Region
Victim in Seattle priest abuse trial settles case
SEATTLE — One of two men suing the Seattle Roman Catholic Archdiocese over sexual abuse by a priest has agreed to a mid-trial settlement.
The other plaintiff continued to press his claims in King County Superior Court and is unlikely to settle in the first sexual abuse case against the archdiocese to go to trial, one of his lawyers, Timothy D. Kosnoff, told reporters Monday outside the courtroom.
“He wants to see this all the way through to the end … and that means a decision by the jury,” Kosnoff said.
The man who accepted the settlement, who was a teenager in the 1970s when he was molested by former priest Patrick G. O’Donnell, will receive about $600,000, Kosnoff said.
Combined with earlier settlements with the Spokane Diocese, where O’Donnell became a child abuser, and a religious order that operated the seminary where O’Donnell was trained as a priest, the man is receiving close to $1 million, Kosnoff said.
Judge Paris K. Kallas cautioned jurors not to draw any conclusions from the agreement.
Greg Magnoni, a spokesman for the Seattle archdiocese, said the victim’s lawyers called Sunday night and accepted a settlement offer the archdiocese had made two months ago during mediation.
“He would have had to testify about some of the most painful experiences of his life,” Kosnoff said. “He chose not to do that. … He felt that he had achieved everything he wanted to achieve in this trial.”
The archdiocese previously settled more than 200 sex abuse cases involving a number of priests. It now has fewer than 20 claims pending.
Retired Seattle Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen, 87, testified Monday that his close friend and former college teacher and mentor, the late Spokane Bishop Bernard J. Topel, never told him O’Donnell was a serial child abuser before or after O’Donnell arrived in Seattle in 1976.
Hunthausen said he could not explain why he accepted O’Donnell into the archdiocese and allowed him full powers of ministry without the usual documentation required of priests who temporarily move to another diocese. Hunthausen acknowledged he should have done more to check the priest’s background.
“It was a breach on my part,” Hunthausen said. “It’s hard to acknowledge that now. It hurts me.”
O’Donnell testified last week and apologized for what he had done after Topel sent him to Seattle for sexual deviancy counseling and treatment in 1976-78, the fifth professional attempt to get him to stop molesting adolescent boys.
Hunthausen testified that based on a telephone conversation between Topel and the archdiocese chancellor at the time, Msgr. John Doogan, he believed O’Donnell was in Seattle to attend the University of Washington. O’Donnell earned a doctorate in education during those years.
Hunthausen said he did not see the need for a background check, interview or other investigation of O’Donnell’s fitness. “The assumption was that he was a priest in good standing because of my relationship with Bishop Topel,” he said.
© Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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George_Sands on May 18 at 12:27 p.m.
Hunthausen is just NOW accepting liability for his actions. If not then, but now he should be listed as a defendant on the complaint.
flutieflakes on May 18 at 1:39 p.m.
“O’Donnell testified last week and apologized for what he had done.”
Apologize? He should be getting his ass pounded in prison.
tothetop on May 20 at 3:12 p.m.
The Seattle Archdiocese and its “people” need to stop telling lies and take responsibility for its part and cooperation in the abuse of Children. They Continue to lie and to cover up all they think they can get away with. The information that you can find about these abuse cases is just a small percentage of what has really happened and continues to happen to this day. Raymond Hunthausen not doing a background check is not how he failed the abused Children. Haunthausen is as guilty as the abusing Priests because he was FULL aware of the abuse the priests were inflicting on Children, He not only was aware of what was going on but he let it continue by transferring Priests who admitted to the abuse to other Chuches putting them is Positions with children where they would abuse over and over again. Hauthausen could have stopped the abuse of many children but did not even try. This might be hard to believe for most as it was for me but when I read over 1000 pages, mostly confidential church documents detailing facts around my abuse case, I was blown away to read a letter from Haunthausen Himself to another Priest expressing his concern to get the priest relocated and keep the parents of the abused children happy and quiet. I was abused by a Father John Forrester in the 70,s in Puyallup and settled out of court just over a year ago.