Santa Barbara public nuisance case against Franciscans dismissed

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Dated Feb. 17, 2009, the dismissal of a civil suit against the Franciscan Friars and Old Mission Santa Barbara is official. The Superior Court dismissed "entire action and all causes of action" on papers filed the 9th of February.

From Tim Hale: "By settling the nuisance case before the demurrer hearing, the Franciscans insured that the issue of whether the nuisance theory applies to the Franciscans (or other entity defendants) remains an undecided case of first impression, at least for now.

"It is worth noting that the Franciscans became interested in mediating the case only when we were a few weeks away from the court ruling on their demurrer.

"I definitely expect to test its viability in lawsuits filed this summer, and strongly believe the nuisance theory is the only way we will ever obtain the true transparency necessary to save today's children from current perpetrators.

"Numerous district attorney's have used the nuisance theory in a criminal context against gangs around the state. I very much hope a district attorney will put it to the same use against the Franciscans and other entities that protect and harbor perpetrators. If not, we will press forward with it in the civil lawsuits."

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CITY OF ANGELS
Needs to take a trip
to Santa Barbara
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We want to go to Santa Barbara, go document diving. The Franciscans have settled hundreds of cases there, plus the Jesuits, although most of those stories remain out of the media.

City of Angels will take the Sunset Limited train and stay at Motel 6 up near the Santa Barbara Mission, ride city buses, and go document diving downtown, no frills, just a search for the facts.

We Need Money to do it. If everyone just put five dollars on the PayPal button in the top left column here at City of Angels, we could take this trip to Santa Barbara next month.

IMAGINE
If everyone who read this blog just put $5 now and then on the PayPal button, how much more we could do here at City of Angels... covering trials or interviewing people in other cities (by Amtrak / Motel 6 / not a con here). We could do so much more with editing software and a better camera...

IMAGINE
How much more we could uncover and produce here at City of Angels if we had a budget. Please click the PayPal donate button, just every now and then, so we can have resources and do more of this work.

ke