Orange Diocese to pay $7 million to women abused by lay employees

Published: 2007-10-08

ORANGE, Calif. (CNS) -- Bishop Tod D. Brown of Orange has agreed to settle four sexual abuse cases involving lay employees of the church and female high-school students for nearly $7 million. The settlement, announced Oct. 2, was in addition to a $100 million settlement in 2005 involving 90 claimants alleging sexual abuse by clergy of the Orange Diocese. "The settlement of these civil cases represents the moral obligation of the church for such behavior by adults in positions of responsibility," Bishop Brown said in a statement. "By settling these cases I sincerely hope that it will enable the women who brought these actions to begin the process of healing and reconciliation." One of the cases, Jane C.R. Doe v. Andrade, Mater Dei High School and the Diocese of Orange, had been scheduled to go to trial the week of Oct. 8. It involved allegations against former Mater Dei assistant basketball coach Jeff Andrade by a former student who said she was molested for more than a year in the 1990s, beginning when she was 15. The other cases involved another Mater Dei faculty member, a teacher at Santa Margarita Catholic High School and a choir director at two parishes in the Orange Diocese. All of the abuse was alleged to have occurred between 1990 and 1999.

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