For Bishop Pilla, it is all about making him look good. He has hired the most expensive public relation firm (Dix & Eaton) and the most expensive law firm (Jones Day) in Cleveland to represent him. Last week, after assigning hundreds of thousands of dollars of legal work to Jones Day, Pilla was sitting in the Jones Day loge for an Indians game being wined and dined. Do you think he and other diocesan officials reimbursed Jones Day for the tickets? In the government and nonprofit world, it is illegal to take gifts from someone you are assigning work to. And of course, Pilla might get the Jones Day gifts, but the people in the pews will be paying the exorbitant Jones Day bills.
D&E HIRED FOR CLERGY ABUSE CASE
Dix & Eaton has been hired by the Cleveland Catholic Diocese to deal with the fallout stemming from allegations of sexual abuse by clergy.
Fifteen priests charged with abuse have been put on administrative leave by Bishop Anthony Pilla.
Since April, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor William Mason has been investigating allegations of abuse brought against 800 people (100 of them priests) that were on diocesan records.
He will soon present his findings to a grand jury. Mason believes there will be some indictments, though not many because many of the cases have been knocked out by the statute of limitations, according to a report in the Akron Beacon Journal.
Bob Tayek, the Diocese's director of media and PR, hired D&E because the Diocese faces a "complicated issue," and wanted an outsider's perspective.
Kevin Donahue, managing director at D&E, handles the Church's account.
By the way, I would note that D&E has done a remarkable job of keeping stories damaging to Pilla out of the Plain Dealer.
Ooooo! When I was in Cleveland Pilla was with Climaco, Climaco and Salvatore. We used to maintain their computer systems. This was in the 90's so I guess they didn't do well for the Diocese. They seemed like very nice people (with tons of power) Perhaps they had a conscience, which is more than I can say for most lawyers.
I may be wrong, but I would not be surprised at all to find out that Pilla was taken over by the devil himself.