Well, it was probably inevitable that it would happen somewhere. Mind, most people would have thought that Boston would have led the charge a year or two ago, given the hefty outstanding judgements against that diocese. For it to be Portland is ... unexpected, to put it mildly.
The Portland Archdiocese announced today it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection rather than proceed with a priest-abuse trial scheduled to begin today. It was the first time a Catholic archdiocese has ever sought bankruptcy protection.
Archbishop John G. Vlazny said he attempted to seek a reasonable settlement in the case and another that was prepared to go to trial if the first one settled. But Vlazny said he could not risk going to trial because the suit sought $130 million in damages. "This is not an effort to avoid responsibility. It is in fact the only way I can assure that other claimants can be offered fair compensation," Vlazny said in a prepared statement.
The church and its insurers already have spent more than $53 million to settle more than 100 claims of priest abuse, the second-highest settlement figured in the nation. [...] The two Oregon cases scheduled to go to trial today - one as a back-up if the first one settled - involved the conduct of the Rev. Maurice Grammond, who has been accused of molesting more than 50 boys from the early to mid-1980s. And he had made the type of inflammatory remarks that can anger a jury. "I'd say these children abused me," Grammond said in a deposition taken before he died in 2002. "They'd dive in my lap to get sexual excitement."
Well ... given the comments by the priest in question, either settlement or bankruptcy really would be the only options. Even with the priest no longer being alive to testify, that sort of comment on the record would make most people flatly refuse to listen to any exculpatory information you might provide. Mind, I'm not sure what sort of exculpatory information you really could provide, given that situation.
Posted by iain at July 06, 2004 04:59 PM
