Lawyers have asked a judge to hold Cardinal Roger M. Mahony in contempt of court for refusing to appear at a scheduled deposition in sex-abuse cases involving a former Stockton priest he supervised two decades ago.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charles W. "Tim" McCoy on Wednesday gave Mahony until Tuesday to respond to the request for a contempt hearing.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday May 05, 2004 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 56 words Type of Material: Correction
Church settlement -- Articles in the California section on April 21 and Thursday about litigation against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles involving sex abuse by clergy stated that an earlier case was settled for $5.2 million in 1999. That lawsuit against the Catholic Church in Los Angeles and Orange County was settled in 2001.
In court papers, the lawyers accused Mahony of "willful disobedience" for reneging on an agreement to give sworn testimony in six civil cases accusing the Stockton Diocese of negligence. Mahony was bishop of Stockton from 1980 until he was named archbishop of Los Angeles in 1985.
Mahony's lawyer J. Michael Hennigan called the motion "irresponsible and frivolous." Mahony would never be cited for contempt in this matter because the judge had forced postponement of the scheduled deposition, his lawyer said.
He accused plaintiffs' lawyers of trying to "grab a headline" at the cardinal's expense.
"The idea that he might be held in contempt is frivolous," Hennigan said. "It's not a big deal. It's not going to happen."
Plaintiffs' lawyer Venus Soltan disagreed.
"There is nothing frivolous about this. We have been trying to take his deposition for six months, but they keep putting conditions on it," she said. "This is not a vindictive thing on our part. We want his deposition."
After hearing from both sides, McCoy may issue an order to show cause why he should not hold a contempt hearing or reject the plaintiffs' request that he intervene in pretrial discovery.
If a contempt hearing is set, Mahony will be required to testify in open court. A judge has the authority to compel testimony.
Mahony is one of only two bishops in the United States to be deposed about their supervision of priests suspected of sexually abusing children. The other, Cardinal Bernard F. Law, was forced to resign as archbishop of Boston after transcripts of his deposition were made public.
More than 500 people sued the Los Angeles Archdiocese last year, alleging that church officials failed to protect children from pedophile priests.
Mahony has not been deposed in any of those cases. Lawyers on both sides have agreed to suspend discovery, including deposition, as they try to reach a settlement.
Mahony had been set to be deposed April 22 in a San Joaquin County lawsuit brought by a man who said he had been raped by Oliver Francis O'Grady, then a priest, in the late 1970s when he was attending St. Anne Catholic School in Lodi.
