Reprint: There Have Been 60 Child Victims of Franciscan Pedophiles in Santa Barbara Alone

Reprint
Now and then I find one of my pieces from Examiner dot com that has been removed, since the L.A. Archdiocese made Examiner fire me in spring 2009.  Just now found this post that is no longer anywhere but Bishop Accountability, so I am reprinting it here, just for safekeeping:

There Have Been 60 Child Victims of Franciscan Pedophiles in Santa Barbara Alone

By Kay Ebeling
Examiner
April 7, 2009

http://www.examiner.com/x-1960-LA-City-Buzz-Examiner~y2009m4d7-There-have-been-60-child-victims-of- Franciscan-pedophiles-in-Santa-Barbara-alone

No ordinary person's psychiatry files are threatened by the Court order to release "Treatment records correspondence from therapist regarding treatment," last week, but In fact the incestuous nature of the Franciscans' internal operations is what resulted in psychotherapist records being released to the public. I interviewed Tim Hale, Santa Barbara plaintiff attorney in the Franciscan cases, by phone Saturday. "You've got the employer saying I want to know everything that's going on within the context of the therapy, and that's what renders the privilege weighed," when psychiatry records are shared with a third party.

"The idea that this is somehow threatening the Franciscans' ability to protect the public is ludicrous," Hale said. "If it was their job to protect the public, they would have been fired decades ago."

Cartoon found at Google Images

He interjected: "Sixty (60) children have been raped in Santa Barbara by Franciscan brothers since the 1950s." Tim Hale seems to repeat that line over and over again when talking to a reporter.

Going to the issue of Notice, in the 1960s, "I know for a fact that (Joseph) Chinnici was moving Father (Mario) Cimmarrusti around in the early 1990s transferring him up to the Mission in San Miguel without warning."

"They had him under watch and Franciscans keeping an eye on them and because of that they didn't need to notify the public."

That Priest Who Was Sitting Next to Me in Court Last Week

That priest that was sitting next to me in Court two weeks ago, Father Joseph Chinnici, "made many of the decisions regarding placement of the perpetrators," during this sexcapade across the American landscape, "key assignment decisions." No wonder he made me so uncomfortable that I ran three scathing uncharacteristically out of control posts here as a result.

So the quote then in the L.A. Times last week?

"An attorney for the Franciscans said the decision would affect the order's ability to deal with alleged abusers in the future. "This puts the Franciscans in a Catch-22," attorney Brian Brosnahan said. "They're expected to monitor offenders, yet the court ruled that the psychotherapist-patient privilege is lost if the psychotherapist reports back to the order about what restrictions should be put on them and what treatment they need."

Tim responded with an uncharacteristic explosion of anger:

"What Brosnahan said? The havoc his clients have wracked before he makes a statement like that. That just pisses me off. Especially that the Franciscans monitor them and protect the public."

Me: Yeah it seems alarmist to say that to the public about mental health records being violated.

Hale: It's alarmist and it does not have anything to do with why these records will be released. It's clear under the law and under privilege, if you disclose those records to a third party, the privilege goes away,"

If you share those documents, especially as in these cases, putting them in personnel files, the documents are no longer private. Duh.

"Traditionally those subject matters are protected but the problems is all the time the Franciscans were looking over the shoulders" of the therapists Hale said.

(All this time, I've been mistaken, even in stories here I've said the files the Franciscans were ordered to release were letters from one Franciscan to another.)

"No, there may not be actual therapy records there but there will be I expect express discussions by the therapists of what they discussed with the (Pedophile) Friar."

"These are actual therapy and Treatment records, correspondence from therapist regarding treatment."

WHERE WILL THE RECORDS BE RELEASED?:"Probably at the firm website." Nye Peabody Stirling & Hale There will be thousands and thousands of pages, it's the entire personnel files that will be released."

Me: Why don't you guys hire me as a temp to do the scanning and then - ?

Hale: [LAUGHS] Well it'll be a while. They will likely appeal this to Second District Court of Appeal, then it could go to California Supreme court if they press forward on the Free Exercise Clause could go to U.S. Supreme Court.

Me; Is there any reason for the public to be concerned now that their psychiatry records can be made public, (as the Church attorney said to the L.A. Times and WORSE, the L.A. Times let the quote go into a story).

Hale: "The records have to do with psychotherapy but you've got the employer saying I want to know everything that's going on within the context of the therapy, and that's what renders the privilege weighed."

Nothing about the Catholic Church sex crimes is ordinary.

Hale repeated: There have been 60 victims in Santa Barbara."

You mean besides the L.A. cases where some of the 510 were from Santa Barbara?

No, those cases are separate, because those cases were about archdiocese priests.

"Sixty Franciscan victims in Santa Barbara," Hale repeated.

Sixty - (60) - Sixty. Sometimes it takes a while for these concepts to reach people, because they are so truly horrible. The first year I started doing this research, I stopped doing it and started again three years later. The subject matter is horrifying, yet it needs to be made public. This network of pedophiles in the church, that extended from religious order to archdiocese across the country, andSTILL EXISTS TODAY in religious orders, which have conveniently been kept out of Catholic church policy corrections, has to be uprooted and prosecuted.

One good thing about taking a spiritual day off is when you return you seem to be on a different plateau where whatever was bothering you before is just not there anymore and you can go on.
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Posted by Kay Ebeling
Producer City of Angels Blog since Jan 2007
The City of Angels Is Everywhere
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