Diocese of Orange, California, will pay $3.5 million to settle sexual abuse allegations against former school leader

Hannah Fry, Los Angeles Times on Dec 18, 2024

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LOS ANGELES — The Diocese of Orange has agreed to pay $3.5 million to a man who alleges he was sexually abused by a former administrator at Mater Dei High School in the late 1970s.

The settlement concludes a lawsuit filed in 2019 against the diocese and brings the amount the Catholic Church has paid out in civil cases involving Msgr. Michael Harris to at least $10 million. Harris has denied molesting minors and was never criminally charged.

The man, identified in court documents as John Doe, wrote in a statement read by his attorney during a news conference Wednesday that he's still trying to overcome the pain of the abuse he suffered more than four decades ago.

"Harris, Mater Dei and the Diocese of Orange made promises to me and promises to my parents," the man said in the statement. "They promised I would be safe at school. They also promised I would be part of a community, a community that would help me grow as a student, as a Catholic and as a human. Instead, they put me in the path of a serial predator ... who took all those promises and broke them."

In a statement this week, the Diocese of Orange said it "vigorously defended" the claim and was prepared to take it to trial but opted instead to settle the case. The diocese's insurers funded the settlement.

"In all claims alleging child sexual abuse, the Diocese is committed to seeking justice, fostering healing and providing unwavering support to survivors," the diocese said in a statement. "The Diocese of Orange deeply regrets the harm caused (by) any and all incidents of abuse. The events alleged in this case occurred more than four decades ago; we recognize that such events have lasting impacts, and we are committed to ensuring the Diocese of today is safe for all."

In his lawsuit, the man alleged he was sexually abused by Harris at Mater Dei in 1978. Harris was the school's vice principal at the time, according to the diocese.

Harris allegedly summoned the 15-year-old boy to his office under the "guise of discussing his grades," the lawsuit states.

When Harris told him that his grades were too poor to continue to attend the private school, the teen got upset. He was concerned about how his mother — who had worked hard to get him into the school — would react, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges Harris comforted the boy and during the encounter began forcibly orally copulating the teen.

Harris, a once-popular priest known as "Father Hollywood," worked at Mater Dei between about 1978 and 1987, according to the lawsuit. Prior to that, Harris was assigned as a priest within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

The lawsuit alleges that Harris was listed in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles' "Report to the People of God" in 2004 as a priest who had sexually abused minors. The archdiocese listed Harris as having 12 accusers spanning 1972 through 1990, according to the lawsuit.

In 1994, when he resigned as principal of Santa Margarita Catholic High School, Harris told supporters in a letter that he was leaving because of stress. Afterward, the Diocese of Orange sent Harris to the St. Luke Institute in Maryland, a treatment center for priests. Doctors at the center concluded Harris was sexually attracted to adolescent boys, according to a report from the center previously reviewed by The Times.

In 2001, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Diocese of Orange agreed to pay $5.2 million to a former student who alleged Harris molested him in 1991 when he was 17. In 2012, the Diocese of Orange settled another case for $2 million in which an Air Force pilot said he was abused by Harris as a teen in late 1986 or early 1987.

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