Testimony of Orange County, Calif., bishop in sex abuse suit ordered released

Orange County's Roman Catholic bishop testified that he was falsely accused of sexually molesting a male parishioner when he was a priest in Bakersfield decades ago, according to a transcript made public Thursday.

Bishop Tod Brown testified this week in a court-ordered deposition as part of an unrelated sexual abuse lawsuit. A judge unsealed the transcript at a hearing Thursday after church attorneys sought to have portions of the testimony redacted over privacy concerns.

Brown was praised in 2004 when he settled about 90 sexual abuse lawsuits against the Diocese of Orange for $100 million, the largest settlement at the time. At the time, Brown released a "Convenant of the Faithful," in which is pledged transparency and accountability in matters of clergy sexual abuse.

The diocese later released thousands of pages from the personnel files of 15 accused priests, although no files have been released on eight others.

Brown testified that he learned of the allegations against him in July 1997, when he was bishop of the Diocese of Boise, Idaho. He said the bishop of the Diocese of Fresno, which included Bakersfield, called to say that a man was accusing Brown of molesting him when he was a boy in the late 1960s during confession and in catechism classes.

The Fresno diocese released a statement Thursday saying that an internal investigation uncovered "absolutely no factual or credible basis whatsoever" for the complaint.

The Fresno diocese forwarded its completed investigation to Kern County prosecutors, who declined to press charges, said Ryan Lilyengren, a spokesman for the Diocese of Orange.

A telephone message seeking comment from the district attorney's office was not immediately returned.

In the deposition, Brown said he was shocked and extremely distressed to learn of the accusation against him. He said that he "vaguely" remembered the parishioner from his time in Bakersfield and that he didn't make the allegation public because he knew it was not true and he was not placed on administrative leave during the internal investigation.

Brown said he later consulted a clinical psychologist to try to understand what would have motivated the accuser to make a false complaint against him.

"He explained to me what oftentimes does happen. And so at least it gave me some understanding of what may have happened," Brown said.

The bishop was asked why, if he was innocent, he didn't reveal the allegation on his own.

"Because it was very embarrassing, and very painful. And to be very honest, I think that kind of an allegation is difficult to deal with, regardless of how innocent a person may be," Brown said.

Brown's deposition was taken this week as part of a woman's lawsuit against a former coach and driving instructor at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana. The lawsuit alleges that in the late 1990s lay teacher Jeff Andrade had sex with a 16-year-old female student multiple times over an 18-month period.

Andrade has admitted in a deposition to having sex with the student, who is now 26. He was fired in 1997, but police didn't file charges.

Brown's deposition was taken because attorneys for the former student wanted to know what, if anything, the bishop knew about other sexual abuse complaints made against the Diocese of Orange in the 1970s and 1980s.

Brown's attorneys had asked the judge to redact portions of his testimony because they touched on a medical condition of a diocesan employee not named in the lawsuit.

The suit is the first to be filed in Orange County since the diocese settled its sexual abuse claims nearly three years ago. Eleven of those claims involved incidents at Mater Dei High School from 1978 to 1986.

In Denver, the Colorado Supreme Court said it had ruled that 11 lawsuits alleging that two Roman Catholic priests sexually abused children decades ago can proceed.

In a ruling issued Monday and made public Thursday, the court rejected the Archdiocese of Denver's appeal without comment. A judge had earlier ruled the statute of limitations did not apply.

The suits accuse the archdiocese of negligence in supervising two priests, concealing abuse allegations lodged against them and failing to protect children.

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Associated Press writer Sandy Shore in Denver contributed to this report.