November 3, 2009 in City

Diocese hit with 21 new claims

None involves recent abuse, attorney says

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Twenty-one new claims of clergy sex abuse have been filed against the Catholic Diocese of Spokane, a number that has surprised the diocese and could reopen its contentious bankruptcy case.

None of the new allegations – called future claims – was made by children alleging recent abuse, said diocese attorney Greg Arpin. Instead, they are accusations by adults who contend they were sexually abused by priests and other diocese clergy years ago and are just now able to link that abuse to financial damage and other problems in their lives.

Seven of the claims have been allowed by a court-appointed claims reviewer who weighs the merits of the allegations and then decides how much money a victim gets.

Five of the claims have been denied, and the remaining nine are pending.

In recent U.S. Bankruptcy Court filings the diocese said it disagreed with some of the claims allowed by the reviewer, Kate Pflaumer, a former U.S. attorney for Western Washington.

The diocese wants to challenge those decisions and indicated it would do the same for some of the other pending claims. But it wants to do so in secrecy and has asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams to once again seal court records from the public. Details of claims settled through the bankruptcy 2 1/2 years ago were likewise sealed.

A court hearing is scheduled Wednesday.

Unknown is whether the diocese will have to collect more money from parishioners to pay the new claims. Catholic churchgoers already gave about $10 million as part of the $48 million settlement that was split among 184 people who were sexually abused over decades by Catholic clergy in Eastern Washington.

The diocese has posted on its Web site the names of 27 priests, Jesuits and members of other Catholic religious orders who ministered in the region and sexually abused children.

The money was supposed to end a troublesome chapter of the local Catholic ministry. Yet the settlement also established a $1 million fund to handle what the diocese assumed would be very few “future claims.”

Arpin acknowledged Monday that the number of these claims is surprising.

If the $1 million set aside to pay future claims is drained, the diocese must replenish it. The settlement calls for a $200,000 minimum fund balance for nine years. Those financial terms are collateralized by parish property.

Dillon Jackson, an attorney representing some of the people making the new claims, called the diocese’s efforts to overturn Pflaumer’s allowance of claims improper and a violation of the comprehensive settlement.

He also argued against sealing court records.

“The potential that there may be exhibits or references to details of future tort claims is not grounds for a comprehensive cover-up,” Jackson wrote. “Diocese counsel are sufficiently clever to separate sensitive arguments and exhibits in discrete pleadings.”

Arpin said the diocese is attempting to comply with the settlement’s broad confidentiality requirements that keep secret the names of victims, payment details and the names of some accused clergy.

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Five comments on this story so far. Add yours!

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  SNAPnetwork on November 03 at 6:45 a.m.

  Defense lawyers arguing that the Catholic church deserves special consideration and secrecy in court. Deja vu all over again.

  David Clohessy, national director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790), SNAPnetwork.org, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

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  schleufer on November 03 at 8:09 a.m.

  wasnt there something on the origonal deal where they were supposed to be involved in changing the statute of limitations concerning child molesters? anyone know anything about that?

  trust is getting harder and harder to come by with this zehm deal the state patrol diploma scandal and more of this. last time the church set up a ATM to make it easier to donate. if i just decided to do to church and i walked in the front door and saw a ATM set up to pay for the child molestation settlements, im thinkin id turn around and go home.

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  Rifleman__Dodd on November 03 at 8:10 a.m.

  Kate Pflaumer…now thats a piece of work.

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  tothetop on November 03 at 12:40 p.m.

  This is not anything that should come as a suprise, it wll continue for years to come. The Catholic Church has done little to change and continues the corrupt behavior that has ruined so many lives. The amount of information that you can find on the internet and in the news is such a small fraction of what has happened, it doesn't even begin to expose the ongoing coverup the Catholic Church still engages in and their inability to accept responsibility for so many lives they have ruined. They will continue to finds ways to weasel out of doing what needs done. Anyone who believes that this is limited to only a few Priests gone bad are wrong. The corruption goes all the way to the top. I personally have letters marked “confindential” that are from Archbishop Raymond Haunthausen requesting that a Priest be relocated after he admitted to abusing 4 boys in the 70's over in the Seattle area. The fact that his record included being 'Reassigned” over 21 times prior for “inappropriate behavior with children” still didn't make any difference. Some of the victims will come forward in the future but so many will stay quiet living the hell within themselves created at the hands of the Catholic Church.

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  TopDog on November 03 at 5:19 p.m.

  What in the ???
  What do they mean the diocese wants to challenge those decisions? and to do it in secrecy?
  Wasn't it their “secrecy” that begot this Mess!
  I wish the courts would go all the way to the top where it all began, starting with the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith!.

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