The second plaintiff to file a lawsuit against the Diocese of Orange and Mater Dei this week alleges that he was sexually assaulted in the mid-’80’s by former Monsignor Michael Harris, a longtime principal and Mater Dei and later Santa Margarita Catholic High School, who left the priesthood when the local clergy scandal erupted nearly two decades ago.Īttorneys with Anderson & Associates, which specializes in representing abuse survivors, said the alleged assaults could not have happened without repeated cover-ups by campus and diocese officials. “I thought they were going to help me and make it better… I don’t want anything to happen to my students and my own children.” “When this happened to me I was a child trusting in the adults who were caring for me,” Bonilla said. The Catholic Church sex abuse scandal exposed by the Boston Globe in 2002 reignited in September 2018, when a Pennsylvania grand jury reported more than 300 priests had molested at least 1,000 children over a 70-year period, and that there likely were thousands more victims. “You can no longer hide, because the law will not protect you anymore.” “To the offenders both past and present, and to all those who have made the reckless choices to protect offenders past and present, be on notice that the survivors are coming, and it is time for their voice and truth,” said Jeff Anderson, an attorney whose firm is representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuits filed this week. It gives those for whom the statute of limitations had run out a window of three years to bring claims that would have otherwise been barred. 1, extends the time that victims of childhood sexual abuse can file lawsuits. Gavin Newsom in October and taking effect Jan. During a pair of news conferences, the lawyers alleged that systematic sexual assault occurred at both campuses and was covered up by school and diocese leaders.Īssembly Bill 218 affects those abused in many walks of life, from Olympics swimmers and schoolchildren to Boy Scouts and young Catholic churchgoers. Francis High School in La Cañada Flintridge. On the eve of a new law that gives victims of childhood sexual assaults more time to come forward, lawsuits have been filed over alleged abuse and cover-ups at Catholic high schools in Orange and Los Angeles counties.Īttorneys on Friday announced a pair of lawsuits filed by two former students of Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana and one by a former student of St.
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