Calif. Order to Pay $6.3M to Settle Suits

CONCORD, Calif. – A Roman Catholic religious order has agreed to pay $6.3 million to settle lawsuits brought by three former students who were sexually abused by counselors and teachers at an elite private school in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The largest of the three settlements, at $4 million, would be one of the biggest in California for a plaintiff in a clergy sexual abuse case, attorneys and victims advocates said Friday.

The abuse occurred when the plaintiffs, now in their 30s and 40s, attended the Concord school operated by the Christian Brothers religious order. One man said a teacher molested him on a school-sponsored ski trip, and another said a counselor molested him at a retreat in Napa.

The third man says another counselor repeatedly molested him during off-campus sessions. The order had transferred the abuser to Concord even though he was known to have had relationships with “sexual overtones” at another school, according to a 1968 letter from a Christian Brothers provincial leader that the order turned over as part of the lawsuit.

“His behavior around me was as if he was entitled to touch me at any time,” Chris Barbour, now 41, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Paul Gaspari, a lawyer representing the Christian Brothers’ Western province, the De La Salle Institute, said the order was “pleased to be able to reach a settlement and put this matter behind us.”

“They are committed to prevention of abuse and have prevention plans in place,” Gaspari told the Chronicle. “We are sad and troubled by what happened 20 years ago. The institute has, for many years, cooperated with law enforcement.”

The lawsuits are among roughly 900 filed in California by alleged victims of abuse by Catholic clergymen and lay people. The state decided in 2002 to lift for a year the statute of limitations on sexual abuse cases involving clergy.

The Diocese of Orange County reached a settlement earlier this month with 87 people who were abused by priests and lay employees. The diocese agreed to pay at least $100 million, more than $1 million for each plaintiff.

The Christian Brothers settlement may encourage other victims as they await resolution of their suits, said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a support and advocacy group.

As part of the settlement, the Christian Brothers agreed to disclose what happened, although it has not released the names of the faculty members involved.

The counselor who molested Barbour has left the order, and another of the abusers is in a Catholic church facility that works with pedophiles. The whereabouts of the third are unknown, said Laurence Drivon, an attorney for the plaintiffs.