Diocese of Santa Rosa Accused Priests

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa is one of California’s smallest dioceses in terms of population. It includes Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, Lake, Humboldt, and Del Norte counties.

In 2019, California enacted a law creating a three-year window for survivors of child sexual abuse, no matter their current age or when the abuse happened, to bring civil lawsuits against their abusers and the institutions allowing the abuse to persist. With the passage of that revolutionary law, numerous victims came forward and filed lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Church and the Diocese of Santa Rosa, accusing priests of sexually abusing minors.

In December 2019, two men filed a lawsuit in Sonoma County Superior Court, alleging that a priest assigned to the Diocese of Santa Rosa sexually abused them when they were children while attending a church camp. The men claimed that a now-defrocked priest, Gary Timmons, started molesting them when they were around 10 or 11 at Camp St. Michael in Mendocino County. The lawsuit also alleged that the Catholic Church had reason to know that Timmons was a child molester but allowed Timmons to continue having contact with children.

Several other victims filed lawsuits naming Timmons as their abuser. Timmons served four years in prison after a court convicted him of child molestation. The lawsuit asked for triple damages under a California law allowing such a steep increase where a plaintiff can prove that the Church engaged in a systemic cover-up.

In 2019, the Diocese of Santa Rosa released a list of priests with credible allegations of sexual abuse. Of the 39 clergy members named, 17 faced accusations of committing sexual abuse in locations outside the Diocese. The list includes the following priests: Joseph Alzugaray, Carmelo Baltazar, Edward F. Beutner, Anthony Bolger, David Brusky, John Crews, Kevin Dunne, Don Eagleson, Don D. Flickinger, J. Patrick Foley, Francis (John) Ford, Ruben Garcia, Patrick Gleeson, Patrick A. Hannon, Austin Peter Keegan, Michael Emmet Kelly, Don Kimball, Bruce Maxwell, Patrick McCabe, John A. Meenan, John Moriarty, Francis E. Neville, Mark O’Leary, Vincent O’Neill, Francisco Javier Ochoa, Ted Oswald, Xavier Pallathuparambil, Thomas Parker, Daniel Polizzi, Celestine Quinlan, John Rogers, Anthony J. Ross, Alfredo Sobalvarro, Gary Timmons, Francis Verngren, James Walsh, Bernie Ward, Ron Wiecek, and Vincent A. Yzermans.

After the Diocese released the 39 names of abusive priests, California’s North Coast Journal of Politics, People, and Art issued a scathing article, accusing the Diocese of Santa Rosa of shuffling priests from parish to parish whenever accusations of sexual abuse arose. According to the report, Humboldt County became a particular dumping ground for child molesters, noting that 10 of the 39 priests listed had an assignment to work in Humboldt County.

According to a victim’s advocate, the Church intentionally moved priests into areas with “vulnerable populations” who were less likely to complain about abusive conduct, such as immigrant communities and poor or rural communities like Humboldt County. Additionally, the average assignment for a priest is usually about six years in one place, but the Diocese of Santa Rosa transferred priests much more frequently, suggesting that the Church’s way of dealing with the problem was to simply move priests to avoid backlash, setting them up where they could prey on new victims.

One of the most well-known cases of sexual abuse in the Diocese involved former Priest Patrick Joseph McCabe, accused of molesting six minors between 1973 and 1981 while in his home country of Ireland. Several lawsuits came against the Diocese of Santa Rosa containing accusations that McCabe was allowed to serve as a priest in the Diocese in 1983, even though church officials knew he had sexual abuse accusations against him in the 1970s.

The Church forced McCabe to resign from his assignment in Humboldt County after he faced new accusations of molesting four boys. The US extradited McCabe to Ireland in 2011 to face criminal charges there. According to the lawsuit against the Diocese, church officials knew that McCabe had gone to a treatment center in New Mexico for pedophilia. Still, the Diocese continued to allow him to be in close contact with children.

If you or someone you love suffered sex abuse at the Diocese of Santa Rosa, contact our compassionate team of sexual abuse lawyers at Herman Law today for a free consultation.