San Francisco, USA - Calling the Catholic Church's conduct "outrageous, oppressive and malicious," an East Bay judge ruled Thursday that two alleged sexual abuse victims may seek punitive damages against the Diocese of Oakland.
The tentative ruling by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Harry Sheppard was another setback for the church, which faces hundreds of other damage claims across the state.
This case and a lawsuit being heard in San Francisco are the first two trials stemming from a 2002 state law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for molestation victims seeking damages against organizations that gave known child molesters access to more victims.
Sheppard presides over a case brought by two brothers, Bob and Tom Thatcher, who say the Diocese of Oakland allowed them to be molested by a known pedophile priest, the Rev. Robert Ponciroli.
At a morning hearing in Hayward, Sheppard said that Thatchers' attorneys can seek punitive damages from a jury that is scheduled to be selected early next week.
"The church knew Father Ponciroli was a serial sexual predator, but it allowed him to supervise and counsel these youngsters," the judge said. "They deliberately hid a violating priest for their own benefit."
Sheppard agreed to give church attorneys one last chance to argue against his tentative decision, and his final ruling is expected Monday morning.
Either way, barring a settlement, jury selection will begin Monday afternoon.
Lawyers expect the trial to take at least one month to complete.
In San Francisco, opening arguments are expected to begin Tuesday in a suit filed by Dennis Kavanaugh, a former student and parishioner at St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church in San Jose. He sued the Archdiocese of San Francisco for alleged child abuse by the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard.
That case, however, is not as potentially costly as the Thatchers' claim because Sheppard's decision to allow punitive damages -- on top of compensatory damages -- could greatly increase any verdict or out-of-court settlement in the case.
So far, the Thatcher lawsuit is the only one in a recent wave of lawsuits to seek punitive damages. That's because of earlier pretrial rulings in the case, and because lawyers uncovered unusually damaging documents showing the diocese had known Ponciroli was a child molester before promoting him as pastor of St. Ignatius Parish in Antioch.
The outcome of the Thatchers' trial -- along with the sexual abuse proceedings in San Francisco -- could help determine how much it will cost the Catholic church to settle some 150 damage claims filed against dioceses and religious orders in Northern California.
Last year, the Diocese of Orange (County) spent $100 million to settle 90 claims.
Bob Thatcher, now a 34-year-old salesman living in Phoenix, says he was a 10-year- old altar boy when Ponciroli ordered him up to his bedroom at the St. Ignatius rectory in Antioch.
Thatcher said the priest would use "the facade of tickling" to initiate physical contact.
Grabbing him and pulling him onto the bed, Ponciroli would lay on his back and continue the "tickling."
"His hands kept wandering lower and lower until they were finally inside my pants and tickling my genital area for the remainder of the time," Thatcher states in a deposition filed in Alameda County Superior Court.
Thatcher described the priest, now 68 and retired from public ministry, as "a slovenly, obese man, probably weighing 300 pounds.''