Cardinal Mahony, Archbishop Kelly to testify in sex abuse cases

Published: 2004-04-06

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly of Louisville, Ky., are to give sworn depositions in separate clergy sexual abuse lawsuits. Los Angeles archdiocesan attorney J. Michael Hennigan said April 2 that Cardinal Mahony has agreed to give a deposition April 22 in a lawsuit alleging childhood molestation in the 1970s by a former priest of the Diocese of Stockton, Calif., named Oliver F. O'Grady. Cardinal Mahony was bishop of Stockton from 1980 to 1985. O'Grady spent six years in prison following a 1994 conviction for child molestation. He has been named in several sexual abuse lawsuits against the Stockton Diocese. In Kentucky, Jefferson Circuit Judge Thomas Wine ruled April 1 that Archbishop Kelly will have to submit to a deposition by attorneys for Kyle Burden, who accuses Father Daniel C. Clark of fondling him in 1982. No date was set for the deposition. Burden's was the only eligible case that was not included in a $25.7 million settlement last year with 243 people who claimed sexual abuse by church personnel in the Louisville Archdiocese. Although the archdiocese has lodged an appeal for dismissal of the case on grounds it was not filed in a timely fashion, the judge ruled that the deposition should go ahead; it will remain sealed until the appeal is decided. Father Clark, who has been removed from ministry since 1988, is currently in prison for child molestation.

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