Suit claims abuse by Burlingame priest http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/e/a/2000/01/17/...

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Suit claims abuse by Burlingame

priest
Teenage boy worked in rectory
Elizabeth Fernandez, OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
Monday, January 17, 2000

Two years after a Roman Catholic parish in

Burlingame was stunned by disclosures of a
nocturnal wrestling match between the church's
pastor and a teenage male rectory worker, the
case is quietly heading to trial in San Francisco.

Mediation late last year failed to settle differences in a personal injury lawsuit lodged by the youth
against the Archdiocese of San Francisco and the priest, the Rev. James Aylward.

The suit, claiming sexual and physical abuse, contends that the youth was "physically and mentally
abused" by the priest for more than a year while working in the rectory of St. Catherine of Siena
Church, and that the archdiocese sanctioned the misconduct by failing to discipline the priest.

The suit claims damages of more than $50,000.

Archdiocese officials and Aylward, who have maintained that the improper conduct consisted of a
single incident of "horseplay and wrestling," vehemently deny the allegations.

"Nothing happened," said attorney Paul Gaspari who is representing the archdiocese and
Archbishop William Levada, who as head of the Catholic Church in San Mateo, San Francisco and
Marin counties, is also a defendant.

Priest was witness

The case achieved local notoriety in part because of the way the incident was discovered and
because of the odd circumstances that transpired afterward.

A parish priest, who had worked as a federal prosecutor prior to his ordination, stumbled upon the
encounter in a darkened rectory room and reported it to both church and civil authorities. Soon
afterward, that priest, the Rev. John Conley, was placed on administrative leave - the archdiocese
said Conley was disciplined for previous transgressions and for insubordinate and disrespectful
behavior toward his bishop.

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In a highly unusual move, Conley then sued his own religious superiors, maintaining that he was
defamed and penalized for reporting suspected child abuse. That suit was dismissed in San
Francisco last year and is on appeal. Conley remains on administrative leave.

"He won't do what they are asking him to do, which is to submit to psychological counseling," said
Conley's attorney Michael Guta. cq "It is our contention that what happened to Father Conley was
an

attempt to neutralize the witness to a boy being molested. They figured the best way to do that is to
say that Father Conley is crazy."

Apology and resignation

For his part, Aylward, now 61, publicly apologized for his "foolishness and imprudence" for
engaging in conduct that is forbidden by archdiocese policy, and said he was seeking counseling.
About seven months after the incident was exposed, Aylward - who was ordained in 1964 and
appointed to St. Catherine's in 1996 - resigned from the parish, attributing his departure to
"personal and administrative pressures" and to health reasons. He has since served at Our Lady of
Mount Carmel Church in Mill Valley as associate pastor.

Last spring, the youth - a former altar boy - filed suit. Because he was a minor at the time, his
identity is being protected by the court.

Trial is scheduled for April in San Francisco Superior Court.

The youth, called John Doe in the suit, was hired by Aylward in August 1996 when he was 15 to
work three evenings a week answering phones at the parish rectory. According to the suit, young
women and young men were hired for clerical work at the rectory before Aylward became pastor,
but that employment was limited to young males during Aylward's tenure.

Shortly after his hiring, Aylward began making inappropriate advances to the teen, the suit alleges.

The alleged behavior

"Aylward would hold Doe hostage by massaging his neck, rubbing his back, placing him in head
lock, clasping him to his chest in tight hugs, and rubbing his penis and/or buttocks against Doe's
arm and other body areas," the suit alleges. "Aylward committed these acts to gratify his sexual
desires."

As time passed, Aylward's alleged advances became more aggressive, the suit contends:

"Aylward would force Doe to wrestle with him, forcing him to the ground and getting on top of him.
Aylward would secure Doe in positions from which (he) could not escape and not release him until

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Doe would groan from pain.

"Aylward while engaged in these acts would grunt and groan and saliva would drip from his mouth.
At times Aylward would ask Doe to get on top of him."

San Francisco attorney Justine

Durrell said that the alleged misconduct happened "approximately every time the young man
reported for work."

She said the young man did not tell anyone about the alleged incidents.

"There was really nobody to report to. Father Aylward was his supervisor,"

she said.

Innocent horseplay

Maintaining that the archdiocese was responsible for providing its young employees with a "safe
place to work," the suit contends that Aylward should have been immediately removed from
contact with the youth. Yet Aylward continued to engage in improper conduct, even after discovery,
for two additional weeks until the teen quit his job on Nov. 19, 1997, the suit says.

The suit accuses the archdiocese of failing to suspend or remove Aylward from the parish where the
young man's family attended church. Instead, the archdiocese regarded the priest's conduct as
"innocent, nonsexual horseplay," the suit says.

As a result of his encounters with the priest, the young man has suffered "extreme emotional
distress," said Durrell, including taunts by other students. "He'd been an altar boy for many years,
a head altar boy. . . ."

No crime charged

After Father Conley reported the incident, the archdiocese has said it conducted its own
investigation and concluded that Aylward's conduct was inappropriate but not sexual. The
archdiocese said it strongly disapproved of a priest wrestling with a youth, but termed Aylward's
conduct a lapse in judgment.

The Burlingame Police Department also investigated; the San Mateo district attorney's office
declined to file charges.

District Attorney James Fox said in an interview last week that the young man told both his
investigator and the police that his physical encounter with the priest was limited to a single
incident.

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"We concluded we would not be able to meet the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt," said
Fox. "We did not believe it appropriate to file criminal charges based on our evaluation of the
available evidence."

In a civil case, he pointed out, the burden of proof is not as high as in a criminal case, requiring
only a preponderance of evidence as op

posed to proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

Youth withheld information

John Doe's attorney said the youth did not fully disclose to police the extent of his encounter with
the priest but described to the district attorney's office a "slow evolution" of physical encounters
with Aylward, starting with a "test of strength" and winding up "with (Aylward) laying on top of
him."

"The police picked him up at school without his parents and took him to the station," said Durrell.
"He was fearful about the whole thing, he was younger and suddenly the police grabbed him out of
school. He did not disclose everything to the police or the full extent to the DA either. He did let the
DA know that there was improper touching that went on for a period of time.''

In court documents, Aylward and the archdiocese deny the abuse allegations.

"The archdiocese took appropriate steps given what it understood to have happened and certainly
given the result of the district attorney's investigation and the archdiocese's own internal
investigation," said attorney Gaspari in an interview. "Nothing warranted suspension or removal."

Attorney John Milano, who represented Aylward until a change of counsel earlier this month,
blasted the allegations of repeated abuse as "scurrilous stuff. . . . That is pure, utter malarkey. . . .
We absolutely, totally deny them. . . . If he did this sort of thing, do you think the Burlingame police
would have ignored it?

"People see the allegations and that's what they'll believe, it won't matter that he's denied it, it
won't matter what ultimately happens in the case, this is what they'll believe, that he did this." <

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This article appeared on page A - 1 of the Examiner

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