Church holds child
partly at fault

In papers filed in court,
the Catholic diocese tries to
share blame for alleged sex abuse

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By Mary Adamski
madamski@starbulletin.com

An alleged victim of sexual abuse by a priest bears some responsibility in the case, according to court documents filed by the Hawaii Catholic diocese.

Attorneys for the diocese responded Monday to a July 31 lawsuit filed by Alexander W. Winchester. Winchester, 51, claims he was sexually molested in 1961 by a priest who died 30 years ago.

The "affirmative defense" filed by the church's attorney William Bordner stated that "if plaintiff received any of the injuries or suffered any of the damages alleged in the verified complaint, said injuries or damages were proximately caused by plaintiff's negligence and assumption of risk."

Winchester's attorney, Philip R. Brown, said the language in effect holds that his client "as a 11-year-old boy attending Sunday school assumed the risk of being sexually assaulted and molested by a priest charged with the spiritual development of a child." He issued a news release yesterday to call attention to the church attorneys' "totally insensitive" filing.

He asked the court to disallow the affirmative defense and to sanction church lawyers for "such an insulting and inappropriate defense." Circuit Judge Virginia Lea Crandall will hear his motion Sept. 16.

The church's lawyer declined yesterday to respond to Brown or to explain the affirmative defense. "Given the fact there is a motion pending that raises these issues, the church is not in a position to try to litigate them or debate them in the press," Bordner said.

"We will argue the motion in court, and we are confident that the court will concur that the pleadings were reasonable and presented in good faith," said Bordner.

In its motion, the church said the statute of limitations bars Winchester's belated claims against "the estate" of the Rev. Alphonsus Bourmeister, who died in 1972. It said the diocese "is without knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief as to the truth of the remaining allegations" made by Winchester about Bourmeister.

The filing in the Winchester case is similar to the church's aggressive defense in an earlier sex abuse lawsuit. A woman claimed that the Honolulu diocese shared responsibility for the 1995 sexual abuse of her son by a Honolulu parish worker who pleaded guilty on six counts and was imprisoned.

In a response filed in March, Bordner countered that the mother, by her own conduct, contributed to the psychological damage allegedly sustained by the boy and another son, and a judge ruled that the church can raise the issue as a defense.

The case against the church and former sacristan Manuel Feliciano has not been set for trial.