The Worthy Adversary

Tag: cardinal roger mahony

  • Altarcations debuts at the Hollywood Fringe Festival

    “A bishop. A priest. A woman. A boy.”

    My friend Steve Julian‘s play Altarcations will debut in June at the 2012 Hollywood Fringe Festival. I met Steve (whom some of you may recognize as the morning host of KPCC‘s Morning Edition) after I “outed” one of his former high school teachers as an admitted perpetrator in the New York Times. When he told me about this play, I flipped (in a very good way). I’ve been lucky enough to see early drafts and talk to him about the progression of the play and the growth of the characters.

    It’s going to be an amazing production.

    Then I found out the play had been accepting into the Hollywood Fringe Festival. I flipped again.

    The play runs from June 8 to 14 24 at The Actors Circle Theater. Tickets are a VERY AFFORDABLE $10 to $15. You need to go. And then you need to tell your friends to go. You can buy tickets here.

    You can also donate to help offset the cost of the production through the Pasadena Arts Council EMERGE Fiscal Sponsorship Program. We all know that ticket sales alone do very little to help offset the costs of producing a play. An added plus: all donations are tax deductible. When you donate, you will sleep better at night and like yourself more, knowing that you contributed to the growth of live theater in Los Angeles.

     

  • More Trouble for Stockton: Oliver O’Grady Re-emerges

    

    Oliver O’Grady is like a cockroach: He will never, never, ever go away.

    A new Oliver O’Grady victim has come forward and filed a lawsuit against the notorious predator and the Diocese of Stockton. SNAP will have a press conference tomorrow to release details. On the heels of the Michael Kelly verdict, this is very, very disturbing news. I have yet to see any kind of apology from the diocese for either Kelly’s actions or the horrific legal hardball tactics that the diocese employed in an attempt to scare the victim into dropping his suit.

    O’Grady is currently serving a three-year prison sentence in Ireland for possession of child abuse images (child porn).

    Here is the press release:

     

    NEWS EVENT: Victims announce new lawsuit against notorious Stockton priest

    Child was abused after cleric admitted crimes to church officials & police

    Convicted in Stockton, O’Grady is now in Irish prison for child porn

    He worked at same parishes as Stockton priest recently found liable for abuse

    SNAP believes there may be more victims scared by diocese’s legal hardball

    What: Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, victims of child sex abuse and their supporters will announce a new lawsuit against notorious child molesting priest Oliver O’Grady and the Diocese of Stockton.  The lawsuit says:

    • O’Grady molested the victim after the cleric already admitted to abusing kids,
    • Stockton church officials knew O’Grady was a predator before the victim in this case was born, and
    • Catholic church officials covered up O’Grady’s crimes and silenced victims.

    Victims will also:

    • Show how O’Grady shared assignments with Fr. Michael Kelly, who fled to Ireland after a jury unanimously said Kelly was liable for child sex abuse.
    • Urge Stockton Bishop Blaire to reach out to other potential victims of O’Grady and Fr. Michael Kelly,
    • Beg Stockton church officials to stop cruel, hardball legal tactics against victims, and
    • Ask local law enforcement to continue criminal investigations against molesting clerics and their protectors.

    Where: Outside of the Stockton Diocese Headquarters, 212 North San Joaquin Street (at Channel) in Stockton

    When: Wednesday, May 2, at 1pm

    Who: Three-to-four victims of child sex abuse and their supporters who are members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPNetwork.org). They will be joined by a former priest and monk—now advocate for victims—who is an expert on O’Grady.

    Why: This week in San Joaquin Superior Court, a 25-year-old victim of convicted serial predator Oliver O’Grady filed a child sex abuse and cover-up lawsuit against the Diocese of Stockton. The lawsuit says that the former priest molested the boy when the victim was five and six years old. During the time, O’Grady was assigned to St. Andrews in San Andreas and St. Anthony’s in Hughson, California.

    The victim was molested in 1992, just before O’Grady was arrested in Calaveras County. According to press reports and court documents, Stockton Diocese officials knew that O’Grady was a direct risk to kids as early as 1976. Police investigated other allegations against O’Grady in 1984, when O’Grady admitted to a mental health practitioner that he had molested children. Instead of removing O’Grady from ministry, then-bishop Cardinal Roger Mahony reassigned O’Grady to St. Andrews parish. The victim in this case was born in 1987, three years after church officials had direct knowledge that O’Grady was a child molester. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/ma-bos/settlements/SettlementStocktonOGrady.html

    O’Grady was convicted in 1993 of four counts of lewd and lascivious acts against two minors. In 1998, the two victims in the case won a $30 million settlement against the diocese. O’Grady was paroled in 2000 and deported to Ireland.

    In January 2012, O’Grady was sentenced to three years in prison for possession of child pornography, after law enforcement discovered the images on O’Grady’s computer and USB drive. According to press reports, the images were of victims as young as two.  http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0131/1224311002517.html

    O’Grady was the subject of the 2006 Academy Award nominated documentary “Deliver Us From Evil,” in which O’Grady admitted to molesting at least two dozen children. The actual number is believed to be closer to 100 http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2008/11_12/2008_11_20_Smith_AbuseSuit.htm.

    Before O’Grady’s latest arrest, he was discovered volunteering with children in a church in The Netherlands and working in a McDonald’s, where he coordinated children’s birthday parties.

    Last month, a jury voted unanimously that another Stockton priest, Fr. Michael Kelly, was liable for molesting retired Air Force pilot Travis Trotter. http://www.modbee.com/2012/04/20/2166315/stockton-diocese-settles-with.html After the verdict, Kelly fled to Ireland.  The Stockton Diocese finally settled the case for $3.75 million.  To date, they have not apologized to Travis or acknowledged Kelly’s civil crimes.

    According to church records, Kelly and O’Grady, who were both from Ireland, worked in many of the same parishes at different times, including Our Lady of Fatima, Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Andrews, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Joachim’s http://www.bishopaccountability.org/assign/O’Grady_Oliver_Francis.htm#shorthand. SNAP believes there may be many more victims of both men who have been shamed into secrecy and silence.

    The victim in this case is represented by Sacramento attorney Dr. Joe George (916) 641-7300, joe@psyclaw.com

     


  • Disconnect, Pt 2: Subpoenas are for the little people

    Earlier this year in Kansas City, SNAP’s David Clohessy was ordered to give a six-hour deposition in a child sex abuse lawsuit. Neither SNAP nor David himself were a party or even knew the victim. Critics piled on Clohessy, calling him evasive and a con-artist. In the end, the deposition has nothing to do with the lawsuit. It was instead a legal maneuver on behalf of a group of bishops to bankrupt SNAP through legal fees.

    This week in Stockton, California, former Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony was called to testify in court in the case of Father Michael Kelly, a priest that a civil jury found had molested a boy in the 1980s. Mahony decided to go to Rome instead. Lawyers are pushing for the judge to cite Manhony with contempt.

    And legal fees? No worries: the Diocese of Stockton and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles are always more than happy to pick up his legal fees. Collection baskets from poor parishes in vulnerable communities never seem to fail. Besides, what does Mahony care that he is costing taxpayers thousands of dollars in unnecessary court costs?

    So who’s the con artist now?

    Read Disconnect Part I here

     

  • Do I detect a disconnect?

    From today’s Stockton Record:

    From left, Bishop Stephen Blaire, consultant Michael Heenan and Monsignor Richard J. Ryan walk down a hallway inside the San Joaquin County Courthouse on Tuesday morning, when jurors in Michael Kelly’s trial were sent home for the day. (emphasis mine)

    Consultant?

    As a PR person myself, I don’t fault Heenan for doing his job. But trial watchers say that he has been in court every day. That gets pretty spendy. Especially at an hourly rate.

    Between lawyers’ and public relations consultants’ fees to cover the tracks of Fr. Michael Kelly, the priest found liable for abuse—and who then absconded from the country—the Stockton diocese should also be held to account for misleading parishioners about how their hard-earned contributions are spent.

    SNAP volunteers came to support the victim at the trial because it’s the right and good thing to do. But from the treatment they’ve received in the comments of various press stories, and the hammering they are getting from the Bishops, one would think THEY were paying for the high-priced consultants.

    Yeah, that’s a disconnect.

     

     


  • Fr. Michael Kelly is so NOT innocent …

    …that he skipped the country, just to make sure that the cops never find him.

    I hope his supporters (like the ones who tried to tamper with the jury) finally realized that he just flipped them the bird.