Tom Fudge: Yesterday marked a historic moment in the sad story of victims suing the Catholic Church for sexual abuse by priests. And this event happened just two hours up the freeway from San Diego. A judge approved a settlement between the Los Angeles Diocese and more than 500 people who say they were sexually abused. The total payout, 660 million dollars, was a record.
Here in San Diego, the Catholic Diocese is still in legal conflict with victims. The local diocese has filed for bankruptcy, saying that it couldn't bear the financial burden of what's being demanded by plaintiffs. The interesting thing about the L.A. settlement is it offers about 1.3 million dollars per victim. So far, San Diego Catholic officials have offered to settle for only about half that amount.
What does the settlement in L.A. mean, if anything, to the San Diego case? And how close are the litigants in San Diego to reaching some kind of resolution?
Guest
- Mark Sauer, staff writer for the San Diego Union-Tribune . He's been covering the sex-abuse lawsuits against the San Diego Catholic Diocese for two years.
