Lawyers for 25 alleged victims of priest sex abuse in Santa Barbara County argued in court Thursday that the public should be privy to the personnel files of the 11 priests named in a settlement agreement reached nearly a year ago between victims and the Franciscan Order.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Peter Lichtman is expected to rule on the matter in the next few weeks, marking another legal chapter in the long Catholic priest abuse scandal in Santa Barbara.

The disclosure of these personnel files was a major sticking point in the talks last year over a roughly $25 million settlement that will be paid to victims of sex abuse that occurred from the 1960s to the early 1990s. 

Most of the abuse took place at St. Anthony’s Seminary, a now-shuttered Catholic preparatory school that was run by the Oakland-based Franciscan Order.

Alleged victims and their lawyers say the public needs to know what these men did -- and how much Franciscan leaders knew -- so residents can take action to protect themselves.

“The Franciscans have proven they cannot be trusted when it comes to making disclosures and informing the public about threats these men might pose,” Tim Hale, a Santa Barbara lawyer representing several of the victims, said after Thursday‘s hearing. “Some things don’t change.”

Lawyers for the priests did not return phone calls for comment Thursday afternoon. They argued in legal briefs that the priests have a right to privacy under state law.

The records to be disclosed include “health care treatment records, personnel files and other highly confidential and private materials,” according to court documents filed by the San Mateo law firm Howie & Smith.

No other judge has allowed disclosure of these personnel documents among the hundreds of priest abuse cases in California that have either been settled or are still being litigated.

The Franciscans were one of the first groups to settle in the Los Angeles region; the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and about 500 victims are headed toward trial next month if a settlement isn‘t reached.

Under the settlement reached a year ago, the Franciscans agreed to pay the victims for their trauma, for professional therapy, and they also agreed to disclose the internal personnel files.

Lawyers for the individual priests, however, are now raising objections, citing privacy concerns and the sensitive nature of the material.
 
The priests include: The Rev. Sam Cabot, the Rev. Mario Cimmarrusti, the Rev. Gus Krumm, Robert Van Handel (who was defrocked after serving jail time for sexual abuse), the Rev. David Carriere, the Rev. Bernard Connolly, the Rev. Dave Johnson, the Rev. Martin McKeon and the Rev. Gary Pacheco. 

McKeon, Connolly and Carriere are dead, and therefore have lost privacy rights, lawyers said.

Hale and colleagues at Nye, Peabody & Sterling argued that the Franciscans knew about the conduct of these priests and didn't do anything to stop it. They say the abuse was ignored, or the priests were transferred to other locations.

They argue that the state has an obligation to release these files in order to protect the public. “It is difficult to imagine a more compelling state interest than that in protecting children from sex offenders,” Hale wrote in court documents.

Other information that may be disclosed includes depositions taken by administrators and priests who worked at St. Anthony’s throughout the years -- many of whom still reside at the Santa Barbara Mission.

St. Anthony’s, which was located behind the Mission, closed in 1984 due to financial problems.

Problems at the school didn’t become known until a group of parents and victims came forward and pressured the Franciscans to conduct an internal investigation in the early 1990s.

Upwards of 80 victims have been identified as abuse victims, but not all of them filed civil suits when the California State Legislature lifted the statute of limitations on old abuse cases in 2002.

Most of the cases of abuse were too old to be tried in criminal court.