Diocese of San Bernardino ACCUSED PRIESTS

The Roman Catholic Church has been the subject of many lawsuits in recent years due to its role in allowing child sexual abuse to persist within its dioceses for decades. The Diocese of San Bernardino, formerly the northern half of the Diocese of San Diego, is one of the many dioceses that hosted clergy members accused of sexually abusing children. The Diocese comprises San Bernardino and Riverside counties and got its start in 1978. It presently has about 2 million parishioners.

In 2018, the Diocese released a list of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse from 1978 (the year of the Diocese’s creation) to the present. The list contains the following names of clergy: Daniel de Dominicis, Joseph Jablonski, Robert Kurilec, Peter McCormick, Dominic Gaioni, Robert Barco, Alex Castillo, Robert Donat, Timothy Keppel, Louis Perreault, Gustavo Benson, Jesus Dominguez, Rudi Gil, J. Ernest Hayes, Malachy McGinn, Paul Nguyen, Anthony Rodrigue, Charles Rourke, Edward Ball, Joseph Fertal, Howard Melzer, Carlos Rene Rodriguez, John Schmitz, Paul Shanley, Bernard Waltos, Fidencio Silva-Flores, Ponciano Ramos, Esteban Trujillo, Joseph Bell, Ruben Garcia, James Gormley, John Haberthier, Neil Kalina, Gregory Kareta, Terrance Reilly, and James Stauber.

According to the Diocese, all except one of the priests is either defrocked or dead. The one remaining priest left the Diocese voluntarily, and his location is unknown. Along with numerous other Catholic dioceses throughout the US, the Diocese of San Bernardino agreed to release the list of credibly accused clergy members after the publication of an explosive grand jury report detailing widespread child sexual abuse and the subsequent systemic cover-up by the Roman Catholic Church.

Child abuse victim advocates in the Diocese claimed that the list is incomplete and that many more priests assigned to work in the Diocese sexually abused children for many decades. In addition, some victims claim that San Bernardino became a “dumping ground” for child molester priests, with 84 priests transferred in and out of the diocese over the past 50 years, as the Catholic Church shuffled priests accused of molestation from one parish to another.

One such priest, Fidencio Silva-Flores, faced harrowing accusations of sexually abusing at least 28 children between 1979 and 1985. His victims named him as a defendant in at least 15 civil lawsuits. The Church removed Silva-Flores from the priesthood in 1998, and in 2002 he found himself facing criminal charges, including 25 counts of felony child molestation.

The list of credibly accused priests also includes Edward Ball, a former priest in the Diocese convicted in 1992 of sexually abusing three boys. The court sentenced him to only nine months in jail. Then, in 1999, the court handed him a second conviction for sexually molesting two brothers who served as altar boys in the Church between 1979 and 1986. He pled guilty, and the court sentenced him to three years in prison.

The two victims also filed a civil lawsuit against Ball, the Diocese, and the Sacred Heart of Aurora, Illinois, where Ball was ordained. The Church settled the case out of court, paying out $4.2 million to the brothers in 2003.

In a recent allegation of priest sexual abuse in 2018, a boy claimed that a priest made verbal advances toward him in 2014 while driving to a church retreat at Our Lady of Solitude Parish in Palm Springs, California. The Diocese claimed that the priest lacked permission to use any of the church facilities or to minister in any of the Diocese’s parishes at the time. When the boy reported the incident to Church officials, the Diocese contacted Child Protective Services to report the allegations.

In response to the unveiling of the prevalence of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church and other recent findings of the time it takes a survivor to report the abuse, California lawmakers extended the state’s statute of limitations or time restriction for filing civil lawsuits against sexual abusers and the institution allowing the abuse to happen. Childhood sexual abuse survivors now have until their 40th birthday to file a civil claim, up from the previous cut-off of a victim’s 26th birthday. There’s also an additional allowance of five years after discovering injuries stemming from the abuse, whichever comes later.

Additionally, California legislators implemented a look-back window to revive previously time-barred cases. This window commenced on January 1, 2020, and will continue for three years, during which time survivors of childhood sexual abuse can file a civil claim regardless of their current age or how long ago the abuse happened.

No one should have to endure the horrifying effects of child sexual abuse, especially in a Church environment where safety and trust should be paramount. If you or someone you love suffered sex abuse at the Diocese of San Bernardino, you may be able to pursue a legal claim against both your abuser and the Diocese.

You should act now to get the compensation you deserve to aid in your ongoing healing. Our lawyers at Herman Law have years of experience fighting for the rights of child sex abuse victims. Contact us today for a free consultation.