Release of LA Clergy Case documents to begin, with 30 to 40 bankers boxes to be made public within days, interview w/Tony DeMarco

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By Kay Ebeling

After hearings in LA Superior Court the day of Obama's inauguration, the release of LA Clergy Case documents was set in motion, with some stacks of files to be sent to the referee, boxes to be released to the public, and attorneys continuing to battle over the remainder.

“Probably the most important information in these cases will be made public now,” Tony DeMarco said Tuesday. “There’s probably 30 to 40 bankers boxes worth of filings” ready to be sent to public archives. When? "It sounds like as soon as the court musters the manpower to bring the documents over to the downtown archives,” DeMarco (pictured) said, adding, "They are the heart of the cases."

We interviewed Tony DeMarco (pictured) after the hearings in Superior Court Tuesday. You can watch the interview video at http://cityofangels6.blogspot.com plus here is a transcript.

City: It appeared to me (in court just now) a lot of documents are going to remain sealed, can you explain that?

Tony DeMarco: The court has essentially ruled for a lot of the documents that there’s appellate case law to tell her (Judge Emilie Elias) that it was produced in discovery only, it was not made part of a motion that decided the case. An adjuditory motion, that that document can remain under seal.

City: Wouldn't that be every document in every case?

Tony DeMarco: No. There are a lot of motions to amend complaints, there were motions for summary judgment. And there were a whole lot of other motions that -

We met over the summer, we went through every document the courts filed, that was ever requested to be sealed, and we got the defense to agree that a lot of the files don’t need to be under seal.

Motions in limine for instance don’t need to be under seal and that's where a lot of the important information is. Certainly though I’ve been fighting it and I thought there was a lot of worthwhile information in the discovery motions themselves. But, you know, the court has decided the way the court has decided.

City: What is the nature of most of the ones that are being left under seal?

Tony DeMarco: They were sometimes portions of personnel files that were attached as part of a motion to compel more documents or more testimony. Sometimes portions of a deposition transcript of a witness, the same. Things of that nature. [INAUDIBLE]

City: Is anything revealing going to ever be released?

Tony DeMarco: By the order of the court that's going to come out there is probably thirty, forty bankers boxes worth of documents now of interest, that are no longer sealed.

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Tony DeMarco: By the order of the court that's going to come out there is probably thirty, forty bankers boxes worth of documents now of interest, that are no longer sealed.
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City: 30 to 40 bankers boxes are no longer under seal?

Tony DeMarco: After the court issues this order.

City: And where do the documents go from there?

Tony DeMarco: The archives. The court archives.

City: Which means they're accessible to the public?

Tony DeMarco: Yes.

City: What's the anticipated date of that?

Tony DeMarco: It sounds like as soon as the court musters the manpower to bring the documents over there, to the downtown archives.

City: That's the Superior Court building downtown on Hill Street?

Tony DeMarco: Yes.

City: And does that mean that they're going to be scanned into the JCCP Documents down there so people can read them in the basement.

(ME: I'm thinking, WOW lots of document diving to do in the next months, come on down, gang, people in LA who are part of this, let’s go document diving together in the Superior Court Basement!)

Tony DeMarco: The court archive is a publicly accessible record.

City: Can you repeat that?

Tony DeMarco: There’s probably 30 to 40 bankers boxes worth of filings, which have probably the most important information in these cases that will be made public now.

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Tony DeMarco: There’s probably 30 to 40 bankers boxes worth of filings, which have probably the most important information in these cases that will be made public now.
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City: Within weeks?

Tony DeMarco: That's my expectation. The court order will come out within days.

City: What information will be in those documents?

Tony DeMarco: You'll find in many instances complaints that were made about priests who were then just transferred over and over again. The heart of these cases, the heart of these cases.

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The heart of these cases
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City: So we all have something to look forward to?

Tony DeMarco: Yes.

City: And you feel like you've finally accomplished it, you're finished?

Tony DeMarco: No not remotely. The single biggest fight that we have on our hands still and it’s part of today’s hearings as well is the personnel files, which were agreed to by the defendants that they would turn them over to a referee, and that whatever objections there might be to those documents being made public can be made heard, and then decided, and documents being made public. That process is ongoing, we have a hearing set for March 5th now.

Anyone who was following this earlier in the year, the judge that all parties agreed to would be the one reviewing the documents, Justice (Edward) Panelli had recused himself, said he didn't think he could serve.

It took us a little bit of time but we were able to get Judge Dickran Tevrizian will be the judge. He has agreed to it. The parties submitted the issue to Judge McCoy who is the settlement judge, and he’s decided that Judge Tevrizian will be the judge to do so.

City: What's holding that up now?

Tony DeMarco: The judge, Judge Elias wants to give every opportunity to all parties to raise objections to have their objections heard. Mr. (Donald) Steier, the lawyer for many of the perpetrators wants a hearing date.

I had asked that since this was already previously briefed, it’s already gone to the California Supreme Court, the Court just issued the order for us to review the briefs that have already been submitted on point and make a decision.

Mr. Steier wanted to submit another briefing and the Court has allowed him to do so, and so that briefing will come in the coming weeks and we'll oppose it as we always do and we'll have a hearing on March 5th.

City: March 5th, so that's what happened today in court, Mr. Steier submitted orally that he still had more objections to a stack of five, right? Five stacks?

Tony DeMarco: That's separate. That has to do with part of the settlement agreement was any documents that were subpoenaed from police agencies, like let’s say Father Wempe, the police (and DA) prosecuted him. It was part of the civil cases that the attorneys subpoenaed police records, and those records did not get reviewed before the settlement was reached.

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Release of documents subpoenaed from police agencies is still being fought by the church.
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Tony DeMarco: So part of parcel to the settlement agreement was that those files, in addition to the personnel files, would be sent to the referee and the referee would hear any objections to those documents being made public.

City: So again what is Steier objecting to?

(Shoot I obviously wasn’t listening, I should have asked now this question:

Why the heck aren’t police documents, of all documents in these cases, public, I mean to me it’s a moot point, they belong to the police, and the police belong to the people.)

Tony DeMarco: He’s objecting to the personnel files going through this process as well as the documents that came from the police agencies for in camera review, he’s objecting to that as well.

City: That hearing will be March 5th as well.

Tony DeMarco: Correct.

City: Alright, we'll see you March 5th, thank you, Tony DeMarco.

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We were in court for the hearing and will file a report here at City of Angels in a matter of days,

I was in court with a notepad, as have not gotten PayPal check yet to buy the Acer $350 laptop. I am panting at the mailbox every day.

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