Plaintiffs' attorney says victims still considering church's settlement offer
By Denise Lavoie, Associated Press, 09/04/02
BOSTON -- The attorney for the alleged sex abuse victims of defrocked priest John Geoghan said today that reports of a tentative $10 million settlement between the Boston Archdiocese and his clients are premature.
In a late-morning news conference, attorney Mitchell Garabedian said, "There is an offer of $10 million. There has been no acceptance," he said. "To call it tentative would be inaccurate."
He said his 86 clients were considering the proposal, but he declined to say how many had agreed to it.
"Many have signed, many have not signed," he said.
The Rev. Christopher Coyne, a spokesman for the archdiocese, refused Wednesday to confirm the amount of the settlement offer but said the negotiations were moving swiftly and both sides were "pretty close" to a deal.
"There is no settlement at this point but we're all working toward it," he said. "This doesn't mean we're stepping back from it, it just means it was a little premature to be reported in the media as such."
The previous deal, estimated to be worth as much as $30 million, was announced in March, but the archdiocese backed out in May when its finance council rejected it.
The new offer, which has been approved by the finance council, was made in late July before the sides went to court to determine whether the earlier settlement was binding, said Law's attorney J. Owen Todd.
Garabedian has asked Judge Constance Sweeney to enforce the earlier agreement, which called for the archdiocese to make payments to victims ranging from $10,000 to $938,000 each. Sweeney had encouraged the lawyers to settle before she ruled on the first offer.
Garabedian said those amounts would be reduced proportionally, or about two-thirds, under the new deal. Some relatives of victims would still receive $10,000, while the victims themselves would receive approximately $25,000 to $320,000.
"It's not all about money, contrary to what some people say," Garabedian said. "My clients just want closure. They want to get on with their lives."
Garabedian said one possible remaining obstacle is that some clients want to be allowed to make victim impact statements in court, describing how the abuse has affected their lives.
The agreements involve some 86 plaintiffs -- 70 who were allegedly sexually abused by Geoghan and 16 relatives of victims -- who have sued the archdiocese.
Todd said Garabedian told him Tuesday morning that all but one of the plaintiffs had agreed to the $10 million settlement. But Garabedian said Wednesday that was not true. All plaintiffs must agree for the deal to be finalized.
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