Posted on 04/30/2002 10:53:55 AM PDT by Saundra Duffy
Mahony sued under racketeering laws 4 men say L.A. cardinal conspired to protect their molesters
Elizabeth Fernandez, Harriet Chiang, Chronicle Staff Writers
Tuesday, April 30, 2002
Cardinal Roger Mahony, head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese in Los Angeles, was accused in two lawsuits yesterday of violating federal racketeering laws by protecting priests who molested children.
The lawsuits were filed in Los Angeles on behalf of two sets of brothers who claimed a priest victimized them when they were children in the 1960s and '70s. The suits allege that Mahony and others in the church conspired to cover up sex crimes by priests under their jurisdiction.
The suits were filed a day after Mahony, spiritual leader of the country's largest diocese with 5 million Catholics, was hospitalized and treated for a blood clot in his left lung. Doctors said the clot is not life-threatening.
Mahony, 66, who has called for zero tolerance against offending clergy, was among those who attended a special summit of American cardinals last week at the Vatican to discuss the widening sex scandal.
Besides Mahony, the suits list the defendants as the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Rev. Carl Sutphin, who allegedly molested the four plaintiffs.
Neither Mahony nor Sutphin could be reached for comment.
The suits accuse Mahony of a pattern that began in 1976 when, as the bishop in Stockton, he "deceitfully" concealed priestly criminal conduct from law enforcement and parishioners.
CARDINAL ALLOWED TO STAY
Later, as cardinal of Los Angeles, Mahony allowed Sutphin, who had been accused of sex abuse, to remain in the ministry, the suits claim. The molestations were reported to Mahony in 1991 and 1994, according to the suits.
The plaintiffs, including twin brothers Andrew and Joseph Cicchillo, say they were sexually molested by Sutphin between 1962 and 1976 while serving as altar boys. The other set of brothers, who were not identified by name, claim they were fondled while on a trip with Sutphin in 1976.
The Archdiocese has said that Sutphin was removed from the ministry this year and that his conduct was reported to the Los Angeles Police Department.
The suits seek an unspecified amount in damages. Any award could be tripled,
however, under provisions of the racketeering law, which was originally enacted to combat the Mafia and was later used to attack the Hells Angels and the Ku Klux Klan.
Mahony told the Los Angeles Times that after he learned about the abuse allegations, he dispatched Sutphin for psychological treatment.
"It was one of those cases where I felt he had followed the treatment program successfully, honestly, and was rehabilitated to the extent anyone can be rehabilitated," Mahony said.
Pope John Paul II appointed Mahony as archbishop of Los Angeles in 1985 and elevated him to cardinal in 1991. Mahony is a native of Hollywood.
"What we are talking about here are felonies," said Lawrence Drivon, a Stockton attorney. He filed the lawsuits with Jeffrey R. Anderson, a Minnesota attorney who has sued the Catholic Church hundreds of times.
"We think the facts clearly support that there was a conscious effort, a scheme and a design to cover up criminal activity," said Drivon.
TOP SECRET FILES
Also named in the suit is the Catholic church's roster of bishops who lead the country's 194 dioceses. In these dioceses, as part of a "scheme and enterprise to protect molesting priests," church officials kept secret "sub secreto" archival files of priests' sexual misconduct, the lawsuits say.
Not only were these files hidden, accessible only to the bishops and never turned over to law enforcement, the suit says, but they were "fraudulently purged."
RICO LAWSUITS
In recent weeks, the powerful Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law -- or RICO -- has been deployed in a couple of other church suits by plaintiffs who say they were molested as children by priests.
Passed by Congress in 1970, the law is a complex act that outlaws any enterprise involving a pattern of criminal acts.
In 1994, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that abortion clinics can rely on the law to punish Operation Rescue members and other anti-abortion protesters who try to block the door of the facilities.
The law can be used against any manager of a group that engages in a pattern of criminal activity, which courts have interpreted as two or more acts committed within 10 years of each other. The criminal acts don't have to be convictions, just allegations of some wrongdoing.
Rory Little, a criminal law professor at the University of California's Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, said the law has been used extensively by political groups and consumer organizations, which have successfully blocked legislative attempts to limit the use of the law. He said he isn't surprised that the law is now being used against the church.
"Congress didn't have this in mind when they wrote the statute," said Little, a former federal prosecutor, "but they wrote a pretty broad statute."
Because of the potential for hefty damages, Little said, most RICO cases are settled before they get to trial.
E-mail Elizabeth Fernandez at efernandez@sfchronicle.com. and Harriet Chiang at hchiang@sfchronicle.com.
If only it were the law-enforcement types going after them, too.
No kidding. I don't understand why it isn't a crime that these cardinals refused to protect children. "Suffer the little children."
I agree heartily!!! I like hoisting pricks on their own petards, YES I DO!!!
Hopefully, now the bishops, cardinals will now listen to you as the Good Pope has spoken, in my view, very cleary on this problem.
We, also, know that it is not just a problem with Catholic Churches, the non Christian/homosexual predators have invaded most of the major churches and are doing the same thing and pushing their agendas. The coverage by the mediots is not there. They decided to go after the Catholics this past year. I think and pray that it will backfire on them big time.
As I have posted in Free Republic and told others in California, this problem is a problem that must be addressed and handled by the good and faithful Catholics. We non Catholic Christians must step back and support you in your task of rooting out the evil that has squatted as you noted in your churches. We must pray for your success, and then we have the same chore in front of us in our churches.
Good luck and God bless you in your massive task that you must attend to, to save your church!
I checked around the newspaper sites and as near as I can figure, in MA, anyway, the clergy isn't required to report child-abuse -- I'm not sure about California, but I'm betting it's the same thing, having to do with the sanctity of the confessional and all that. (I believe the mandatory report law is changing to remove that exemption in MA.)
The other problem would be that the victims aren't reporting it to the DAs in time.
Things are changing in that victims ARE reporting it these days (noone really thinks this is a recent problem, do they?); there's not as much stigma about homosexuality and speaking against the church as their used to be. But it's still not within the statute of limitations.
Other victims, of course, have taken the money and ran -- reporting it to the Church instead of the law, then accepting whatever promises and pay-outs that are offered in exchange for their silence.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.