Survivor of Priest Abuse at Camp St. Michael Joins Wave of Lawsuits Under California Law

New lawsuits are arriving at the Catholic Church after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to a California state law that allows victims to sue over clergy sexual abuse, even decades after it occurred. The law opened a three-year window for such suits regardless of when the abuse took place. San Francisco’s archbishop and every bishop in Northern California had tried to challenge the law, but the high court turned them away last week.

The I-Team’s Dan Noyes spent years investigating these cases, reporting in the 1990s on priests whom church officials had allowed to move from parish to parish despite known concerns. Over the years, the I-Team has also heard accounts of abuse at the Catholic Church’s Camp St. Michael in Mendocino County from more than two dozen people. A new plaintiff who spoke to the I-Team, and who asked not to be shown or named, is suing the church over alleged abuse by Father Gary Timmons in 1978. He says the abuse had a lasting effect on his ability to trust others and to sustain a committed relationship.

Attorney Spencer Lucas represents several hundred survivors of clergy sexual abuse whose cases can now proceed. In a statement, Lucas said the Supreme Court’s decision was important “not only for my clients, but for all of the survivors across the state of California,” and that it gives them hope that they can “finally get their day in court.”

According to the report, police arrested Timmons after the I-Team’s 1995 investigation, and he received an eight-year prison sentence for child molestation. The Catholic Church paid settlements at that time. Lucas now has several new lawsuits naming Timmons and another priest the I-Team investigated, Father Austin Peter Keegan. The I-Team reported that it had documented how the church received complaints about Keegan and still moved him from parish to parish in the Bay Area, and that he was eventually sent to an orphanage in Mexico.

In 1995, attorney Maja Ramsey said that her team had tried for a year and a half to locate Keegan, and that the church would not disclose where he was. She described finding him affiliated with an orphanage as “pretty appalling.” The church spent millions settling cases in the 1990s and now faces additional lawsuits related to Keegan, Timmons, and other priests. Those who hold positions of trust answer for how they respond when concerns are raised (Luke 12:48).

In an interview, Dan Noyes asked the plaintiff, “What do you hope to get out of this personally? Do you think this is going to make you feel better?”

Source: Read the original report