Friday, April 28, 1995

The state Justice Department has asked the state Supreme Court to overturn an appellate court decision that bars the prosecution of accused child molesters once the statute of limitations covering their crimes has expired.

If the high court agrees to review the case and reverses the lower court, it would enable San Francisco to prosecute Monsignor Patrick O'Shea for the alleged sexual abuse of nine men, who say they were victimized as youths.

Otherwise, the 16 counts of child molestation filed against the 62-year-old priest would probably be dismissed, Assistant District Attorney Frank Passaglia said.

Deputy state Attorney General Janet Bangle said Wednesday that her office filed the petition for review last week and had not yet heard from the court whether it would accept it for hearing.

In a March 15 decision, the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles held that a 1994 law passed by the Legislature allowing an expired statute of limitations to be renewed would violate the U.S. Constitution.

Bangle said the appellate court ruled that prosecution of a defendant on child abuse charges after passage of the six- year statute of limitations in effect when the alleged crimes occurred violates the constitution's protection from after- the-fact criminal laws.

"We disagree with the court's ruling," she said.

Bangle said the appellate court ruling blocks the prosecution of several men around the state who have been accused of child molestations that allegedly occurred many years ago.

One of them is O'Shea, former pastor at St. Cecilia's Church on 17th Avenue in the Parkside District. He has been accused of sexually abusing nine men, several of them while they were altar boys, in a mobile home at Lake Berryessa in Napa County.

One of the alleged victims said Wednesday that he was disappointed that his alleged molester may escape prosecution.

"It's all washed away to a point, and people will think "who cares about the victim?' " said the man who asked not to be identified. "A major crime occurred, but in a sense there is no justice for these people."

He said it happened years ago, when society understood far less about child abuse and victims were less willing to step forward.

"Back then there were issues that seemingly were more important, the escalation of the war in Vietnam, the hippie flower child movement," he said. "America's attention was on other issues. A ruling like this is not fair . . . "

Prosecutor Passaglia said the alleged incidents involving O'Shea and the boys took place in the 1960s, 70s and early 80s. There are no reported crimes after 1985.

In the 1994 law, the statute of limitations was defined as one year from the date a person of any age reports to police that he or she was a victim of sexual molestation before becoming an adult.

Bangle said four other cases involving alleged acts of child sexual abuse by adult men are pending in courts in Mendocino, Humboldt, Fresno and Monterey counties.

She said the Justice Department also petitioned the Supreme Court to review the Mendocino case before the appellate court ruling, but the justices refused.

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