Bay Area Jury to Deliberate Historic Catholic Clergy Abuse Case

An Alameda County jury began deliberating Tuesday in what may be the first Catholic clergy abuse case in California to reach trial.

The historic civil case centers on a 61-year-old man who said he was repeatedly molested as a 10-year-old altar boy by a Catholic priest in Union City more than 50 years ago. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland does not dispute that the abuse occurred or that it failed to properly supervise the priest. What remains for the jury to decide is how much money the man is owed for enduring the trauma.

The verdict, expected as early as Wednesday, could have far-reaching consequences not just for this plaintiff, but for hundreds of others still waiting for their abuse cases against Northern California clergy to be resolved.

“After years of stalling, and delays, and tricks of all kinds and procedural tactics to stall these cases, finally the first one has reached the jury,” said Rick Simons, the lead plaintiffs’ liaison counsel, after closing arguments Tuesday. “Survivors will have a better chance to either get a day in court or a settlement because of what this individual plaintiff was willing to do.”

The Diocese of Oakland declined to comment on the case, saying in a statement that it would be inappropriate to do so while the jury is deliberating.

The case was filed in 2019, which makes it one of thousands brought after a change in state law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse claims and allowed survivors to file lawsuits over decades-old incidents.

However, in May 2023, the Oakland Diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which placed a legal hold on most proceedings against it.

A bankruptcy judge allowed a handful of cases, including this one, to proceed — but any judgment cannot be collected against the diocese directly while the bankruptcy stay remains in effect. Insurance coverage, however, is not included in the stay and remains a potential source of compensation for victims.

“People will finally get their cases heard after years and after decades of waiting,” Simons said.

This bellwether trial will allow both sides to gauge how their arguments land when the time comes to tackle the hundreds of cases still waiting to be resolved.

“The idea is this case, and if necessary a couple of other trials, will help everybody involved get ideas as to ranges of values for cases, and that in turn should help settle the many, many cases that have not yet been settled,” Simons said.

Simons represents approximately 80 plaintiffs in Northern California and serves as liaison counsel coordinating the interests of all plaintiffs in the complex litigation. According to reporting from the Bay Area News Group, East Bay priest Stephen Kiesle is alleged to have abused victims in more than 60 of the roughly 350 pending lawsuits against the diocese.

The former priest was first convicted of lewd conduct in 1978, defrocked in 1987, and later sentenced to six years in prison in 2004 on additional molestation charges. He is currently incarcerated on a separate vehicular manslaughter conviction and did not appear at trial.

Simons said the abuse his client suffered as a fifth-grader in 1975 had never fully left him — a theme the jury heard throughout the trial. The plaintiff has struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder for decades, which a clinical psychologist hired by his attorney linked to the childhood abuse, the Bay Area News Group reported.

Simons told KQED that carrying the secret of abuse — as Kiesle instructed his victims to do — compounded the long-term psychological harm.

“The betrayal of trust is one of the factors that causes child abuse to be serious and permanent in many cases,” Simons said. “The helplessness of the kid in terms of being able to prevent the abuse is very damaging to their mental health.”

Attorneys for the diocese, however, argued that the man’s decades of mental health struggles could not be attributed solely to the abuse and pointed to other traumas in his life, including the death of a childhood friend and his mother’s alcoholism.

Jurors will return on Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. to continue their deliberations. Nine of the jurors must agree on a verdict.