Sep 12, 2007 11:08 am US/Pacific
Church Seeks To Seal Testimony In Sex Abuse Suit
ORANGE, Calif. (CBS) ―
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Mater Dei, one of the nation's largest parochial schools, has a reputation as an academic and athletic powerhouse, but it also has been plagued by sexual abuse allegations.
AP
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange is seeking to permanently seal testimony given by Bishop Tod Brown as part of a lawsuit accusing a former Mater Dei High School coach of sexually abusing a student, it was reported Wednesday.
Brown was deposed Monday by the student's attorneys, who want to know what he knew about other sexual abuse complaints made against the diocese during the 10 or so years that Jeff Andrade worked at the Santa Ana school as an assistant basketball coach and driving instructor.
Brown's attorneys immediately won a temporary order sealing the deposition, John Manly, an attorney representing the accuser, told the Los Angeles Times. A full hearing on the sealing motion is scheduled for tomorrow, he said.
Mater Dei, one of the nation's largest parochial schools, has a reputation as an academic and athletic powerhouse, but it also has been plagued by sexual abuse allegations.
In the current case, a woman identified only as Jane C.R. Doe accuses Andrade of molesting her beginning in the mid-1990s when she was 16, after she began taking a driver education class from him.
They had sex over some 18 months, possibly hundreds of times, in the gymnasium, classrooms, his house and several times in a Las Vegas hotel room, according to the lawsuit, The Times reported.
In his deposition taken as part of the lawsuit, Andrade admitted to having sex with Doe. He was fired in 1997. Police investigated in 1997 but no charges were filed.
The move to keep the bishop's deposition private appears to conflict with a promise Brown and his diocese made years ago to comfort their followers and quiet their critics as Catholic churches everywhere were stung by sex scandals, according to The Times.
The diocese agreed in 2004, under a $100-million settlement with an estimated 90 alleged molestation victims, to make its files public.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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