July 25, 2009 at 23:55:09

Not masturbated, I just fondled him, says Monsignor Herdegen

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Not masturbated, I just fondled him, says Monsignor Herdegen, plus email says Jesuits in Santa Barbara as bad as Franciscans --
By City of Angels -- Monday, July 20, 2009

In a June 2006 Deposition, before an attorney can stop Anthony Herdegen from continuing to answer, the Monsignor says, "I probably fondled him, but I never had intercourse with him or he with me, I never masturbated him," about an adult victim of pedophilia who is suing the church. Right after that utterance, Herdegen stops and there's a back and forth between attorneys and at first it looks in the transcript as if plaintiff attorney Tony DeMarco stopped him from answering, but later you see it is actually the church attorney who stopped the dialogue at that point..

Also in this post, a Santa Barbara County resident says the Jesuits manipulated the media to put all the attention on the Franciscans and whitewash their own crimes in that region, responding to new photos of Franciscan Gus Krumm we posted July 13. Her email is at the bottom of the blog .

As soon as Herdegen incriminated himself in the June 2006 depo, his team of attorneys stopped him from talking. In the transcript you read that Carey H. Johnson, Church Attorney, from Stammer, McKnight, Barnum & Bailey in Fresno, said, "Yes, I said something because I thought Mr. De Marco was interrupting you in the middle of your answer there."

That is church attorney speak for he interrupted his witness and kept him from answering by saying he thought the plaintiff attorney was interrupting. In the transcript you can sense the chaotic crosstalk and overlapping, confusing even the Court Reporter, after Herdegen said those words about "fondling, not masturbating."

Attached to Defendants' Motion in Opposition to a New Trial filed last June was Exhibit 17, Deposition of Monsignor Anthony Herdegen, in the case of Santillan vs. Bishop of Fresno, on which we last reported here. So now in the California appellate court system, as the Church tries to get the June 12th order for a new trial overturned, the judges will likely consider quotes from this deposition. Whatever the Bishop of Fresno is cooking up with his team of lawfirms, the deposition of Anthony Herdegen from June 8, 2006, is public record.

Below is the entire dialogue where Herdegen admitted "fondling not masturbating,: direct from the transcript of Video Depo of MONSIGNOR ANTHONY HERDEGEN, 6/8/06. You can also read the entire transcript at City of Angels 11 here

****************

Q Okay. And when you would have him in the -- in the room with you, the bedroom, what would be done? What were you in there for?

A: How should I say it? I probably -- probably fondled him then, but I never had intercourse with him or he with me. I never masturbated him. All those accusations were made; they're lies.

Q But so that I'm clear then --

MR. JOHNSON: Excuse me, I don't know -- I don't know if he's finished answering the question.

BY MR. De MARCO:

Q I apologize, then. I don't mean to interrupt.

A What was that?

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Wordsmith working in TV production in Los Angeles. Also free lance journalist with an active blog. Old enough to have demonstrated against the Vietnam War but still young enough to dance.

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