Attorney's motion rejected

The attorney who is suing the Albany Diocese on behalf of clients who were sexually abused by priests has had his motion entirely rejected by the judges of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York State.

John Aretakis, the lawyer, had asked the Appellate Division to:

* move the cases out of Albany County to one of three downstate counties because he claimed his clients could not receive a fair trial upstate;

* rescind a judge's cautionary advisory that attorneys not make prejudicial comments about the cases in the news media;

* impose a sanction and/or hold a hearing regarding actions by the Diocese's attorney that Mr. Aretakis found objectionable, namely providing copies of already published newspaper articles to a judge at the judge's request; and

* put on hold current ethics investigations that Mr. Aretakis said are being conducted against him by the Disciplinary Committee of the New York Court System. Mr. Aretakis has accused the Diocese of filing the ethics complaints. Bishop Howard J. Hubbard and the diocesan attorney have categorically denied that accusation.

Mr. Aretakis' motion included a 21-page document dated March 24. On April 11, in a terse, one-page statement, the Appellate judges denied his motion for all of the relief requested.

Reacting to the ruling, the Albany Diocese said, "We believe that the decision and order [on the motion] by the Appellate Division...is decisive and will advance the disposition of the pending claims on the merits. We welcome this prompt decision."

None of the three cases before the Supreme Court involves current claims of sexual abuse by priests. They are also not requests for settlements for victims by the Diocese; those were made several years ago. Rather, the cases revolve around claims by victims that they were counseled improperly or not treated well by the Diocese when they made charges against priests. The Diocese has denied each of the allegations.

(4/24/03) [[In-content Ad]]