High-profile priest abuse case heads to trial

In a clergy sex-abuse case already historic for shaking loose internal Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis documents, attorneys are setting up their strategy as they battle over what information makes it into the courtroom.

Assuming no settlement is reached, trial is set to start today in St. Louis Circuit Court in the case filed by a woman identified as Jane Doe 92. The plaintiff alleges that former St. Cronan’s Parish priest Joseph Ross started sexually abusing her in 1997, when she was about 6, and continued until 2001. Ross had been previously convicted of sexual abuse of a young parishioner, and Doe 92 contends that the church should have known he was a danger to children.

The trial in front of Circuit Judge Jimmie Edwards is expected to take two to three weeks. It will involve more than 20 fact witnesses and multiple expert witnesses, according to a May 7 request for a judge assignment signed by defense attorney Gerard “Jerry” Carmody.

On Feb. 6, the Archdiocese of St. Louis complied with a state Supreme Court order to turn over its own internal records — including priests’ names — detailing two decades of suspected cases of sexual abuse in St. Louis. It took eight months for the plaintiff to obtain the church’s list of names of alleged abusers, something that’s never happened in Missouri, attorney Rebecca Randles has said. Randles, of Randles Mata & Brown in Kansas City, is not involved in the St. Louis case but has represented hundreds of plaintiffs in sex-abuse cases against clergy.

Doe’s attorneys — who include Kenneth M. Chackes, M. Susan Carlson and Nicole Gorovsky of Chackes Carlson in St. Louis and Jeff Anderson of Jeff Anderson & Associates of St. Paul, Minnesota —  have said they will use the records to show that the church knew Ross was a risk to its young parishioners and should not have allowed the cleric to have contact with children.

But recent back-and-forth on evidence to be allowed in the trial centered on Doe 92’s medical history.

Although she originally sought damages for “medically diagnosable” emotional distress, she earlier this year decided to limit herself to recovery for a narrow form of damages — for “garden variety” emotional distress, Carmody said in a June 26 motion to limit evidence.

“She abruptly changed course earlier this year to prevent the archdiocese from obtaining her medical records, which she obviously believes would be extremely damaging to her case,” Carmody wrote.

After Doe changed her damages claim, the court barred the archdiocese from gathering Doe’s medical records, saying they were privileged, Carmody said in the filing.

The defense wants to limit reference to symptoms described by Doe that Carmody said are “hallmarks of a medically diagnosable condition,” such as flashbacks and thoughts of suicide.

Chackes countered in a response that the plaintiff should be able to testify about her feelings but won’t provide any evidence about a diagnosis or medical treatment.

Her injuries stem from “30 to 60 incidents, over a period of several years of increasingly brutal sexual abuse, that were perpetrated on her at a tender age by a trusted and revered adult,” Chackes said in the response.

Edwards had not ruled on the emotional distress evidence issue as of press time, according to online court documents.

The attorneys also tussled about the disclosure of the archdiocese’s net worth. Edwards ruled that the plaintiff’s attorneys could find it out through “one interrogatory and one request for production.”

At least two notable Catholic figures were scheduled for depositions in the case. They include Sister Louise Lears, a nun Doe 92’s parents first told about the alleged abuse in 2006, after Ross was removed from the parish. Lears reported the allegation. The nun, who served at St. Cronan after Ross was removed as pastor, was banished in 2008 by the archdiocese for attending the ordination of two women. Defense attorneys unsuccessfully tried to quash her deposition, saying in a court document that she had no direct knowledge of the alleged abuse.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, was scheduled to be deposed starting the evening of June 26. Pope John Paul II named Dolan an auxiliary bishop of St. Louis in June 2001, and he was consecrated a bishop on Aug. 15 that year by then-Archbishop Justin Rigali, according to online biographies.

The case is Jane Doe 92 v. Archdiocese of St Louis, 1122-CC10165.