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Media Advisory
February 18, 2014
Sexual Abuse Survivors Settle with Los Angeles Archdiocese
Archdiocese used therapy scam to defraud victims of civil rights
Cardinal, Bishop thwarted police, helped criminal priest escape US
What: At a news conference Wednesday sexual abuse survivors and their attorneys, Anthony DeMarco and Jeff Anderson will:
- Announce a landmark, $13m settlement on behalf of 17 survivors who were sexually abused by five different perpetrators in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, including Fr. Nicolas Aguilar Rivera.
- Discuss how the Archdiocese paid for survivor’s therapy but did not inform survivors of their legal rights to sue, as required by law.
- Demonstrate and discuss how an international conspiracy between Cardinal Roger Mahony and a Mexican bishop allowed a child-raping priest to be dumped in LA’s Spanish-speaking neighborhoods and how Cardinal Mahony and Bishop Thomas Curry defrauded survivors by misleading the police in the case of Fr. Nicolas Aguilar Rivera.
- Play excerpts from Cardinal Mahony’s video deposition taken in 2013 where he claims he and his deputies “did nothing wrong” in handling cases of child sexual abuse. Copies of the sworn testimony excerpts will be available for press.
WHEN: Wednesday February 19, 2014 at 11:00 AM PST
WHERE: Westin Bonaventure Hotel – Palos Verde Room
404 S. Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA 90071
WHO: Attorneys Jeff Anderson and Anthony DeMarco along with several sexual abuse survivors, including survivors abused by the five perpetrators named in this settlement.
- Documents and additional information will be posted to our website www.abusedinsocal.com under “Case Resources.”
- Spanish speaking interpreters will be available.
Thank you for this information. I am extremely disappointed in the federal government’s refusal to understand the serious public safety crisis that continues to exist in the U.S. When innocent children and families are torn apart and forced to endure a life of silence and shame because the Church teaches that public scandal should be avoided at all costs, and the federal government plays the ostrich, our society is in serious moral and ethical trouble.
Cardinal Mahoney’s attorney J. Michael Hennigan, Esq., along with the select few of politically-connected attorneys representing the Catholic Church and members of the clergy credibly accused of abuse had a duty to inform their clients that failures to report heinous crimes against children to law enforcement are in fact, felony crimes! These attorneys could have stopped the horrific abuse scandals years ago but made a personal choice to financially gain from defending and/or settling civil abuse lawsuits, WITH NO ADMISSION OF GUILT.
Even former President Nixon eventually admitted that he participated in the Watergate coverup…… it is time for the Catholic Church to act accordingly.