The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will pay $3 million to settle a child abuse case in Portland after pre-trial motions by a county judge there looked to keep the case in court for years to come, a spokesman said.
Attorney Von Keetch, who represents the church in legal cases involving child abuse, said Tuesday the church "settled this case solely on the basis of litigation economics" and that it "continues to expressly and emphatically deny that it owed any legal liability" to the plaintiff.
"Continuing this litigation, with a trial, an appeal, another trial and probably another appeal, could well cost the church significantly more in legal fees and other costs than the amount that it paid to settle the case," he said.
The plaintiff's attorney, Timothy Kosnoff, said he and his legal team will have "a lot to say" about the case but deferred further comment until a press conference he said will be held in Salt Lake City Wednesday, "somewhere in the vicinity of Temple Square. We think it's an important story, but there's a lot more to the story."
Keetch said the LDS Church, which normally keeps such out-of-court settlements and financial amounts confidential, had no interest in maintaining that confidentiality in this case. In fact, the church contacted local reporters about the case and set up individual media briefings throughout the day Tuesday, rather than announcing its settlement at a collective press conference.
Asked why the church is opting to discuss the settlement, Keetch said the "church has learned by experience that inevitably these cases come in to the press through the plaintiffs. The church has a story it wanted to get out as to the reason it's settling, and that's why it decided to go forward as it did."
The case involves a complaint filed in 1998 against the church by Jeremiah Scott, whose Portland-area family agreed to house 88-year-old Franklin Curtis after he moved into the Brentwood LDS ward in the Portland area and was living in a rest home. Unbeknownst to the family, Curtis — who was then a member of the church and had been ordained to the office of high priest — had a prior record of child abuse in another ward in the Portland area in the early 1980s, moved to Pennsylvania and was then excommunicated by church leaders in Pennsylvania when they found out about the abuse from Portland officials.
Keetch said that in the early 1980s, when Curtis was first convicted of abuse and excommunicated, "no church, including this one, had the ability to track all its members and inform every bishop in the country about the members' past history."
In the mid-1990s, Keetch said, the church began an "annotation program" that notes on individual membership records whether church members have any history of child abuse.
After residing in Pennsylvania for a time, Curtis returned to the Portland area, and when the Scott family invited him to live with them, then-Bishop Gregory Lee Foster advised Mrs. Scott against having Curtis move in with them because he questioned whether they had the resources to care for him, Keetch said.
At the time the complaint was filed, Scott alleged that Foster knew about Curtis' past and failed to warn the family. But Keetch said Foster's sworn deposition "is uncontradicted that he never knew" about the past abuse.
"The plaintiffs kind of let that one go after a while. I think they believed their claim was better if he didn't know. Foster's sworn statement is that he never in his mind knew (about the abuse) when Mrs. Scott talked to him" about the living arrangement.
The case involves many of the same issues the church has faced before in lawsuits alleging knowledge of child abuse or actual abuse on the part of a church leader, but Keetch emphasized that even though Curtis, who is now deceased, was a high priest in the church, he was never authorized in any way to act as "clergy" either for Scott and his family or for any other members of the congregation.
Keetch said the church has taken exception to the way Multnomah County Circuit Judge Ellen F. Rosenblum handled the case on at least four different issues in pre-trial hearings and conferences. He said the court ruled that:
"A church could be held liable for conduct committed by a member against another member, when the abuse did not occur as part of a church activity or on church premises.
"The church disclose confidential confessions from individuals who had absolutely nothing to do with Mr. Curtis' abuse of Scott.
"Plaintiff's counsel could argue that Mr. Curtis held the position of 'clergy' in The Church of Jesus Christ because he was a 'high priest,' despite the church's clear doctrine that 'high priest' is a commonly used membership designation that carries no specific leadership responsibility.
"The church could be held directly responsible for an intentional act committed by one of its 11 million members, even if the church had no knowledge beforehand."
Keetch said the church tried "vigorously" to defend its claim of confidentiality for church members who had reported child abuse in the past and whose records were then ordered to be disclosed by the court to the plaintiffs' attorneys. "These and other erroneous rulings turned a weak claim into a potentially lengthy and expensive legal battle, involving multiple appeals and an eventual retrial," Keetch said. Consequently, the church "elected to settle the case and devote its resources to its principal mission, proclaiming the gospel, rather than continuing to pursue costly litigation."
Keetch said the church offered to provide "counseling and other assistance to Mr. Scott, solely out of concern for his well-being." Rather than accepting the offer, Scott filed a claim for $1.5 billion in damages against the church.
While the church has fought protracted legal battles in other child abuse cases, Keetch said the economics of this particular case dictated the settlement.
"There is no religious organization which does more to protect children — or which reaches out more to assist children who have been physically or sexually abused — than does The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church strongly believes that victims of child abuse need professional counseling, love, safety and other forms of assistance. It provides assistance and helps victims of child abuse in dozens of different ways. It condemns child abuse in the strongest terms and is constantly working to assist its members and others with this devastating societal problem."
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