Family of deceased author who wrote about sexual abuse by ex-priest sues Oakland Diocese – SFBay

The family of a deceased man who said he was repeatedly sexually assaulted as a child by a Roman Catholic priest in the Bay Area are suing the Diocese of Oakland under the provisions of a new state law which allows such cases to move forward.

The family and estate of Jim Bartko, former athletic director at Fresno State University, filed a lawsuit last week in Alameda County Superior Court.

The lawsuit alleges that Bartko suffered repeated sexual abuse from 1972 to 1975 at the hands of Stephen Kiesle, then a priest of the Diocese of Oakland and assigned to St. Joseph Parish in Pinole.

He also claims the diocese was aware of Kiesle’s “history of sexual behavior and sexual assault on minors” prior to his allegations of abuse of Bartko and negligently allowed Kiesle to continue working with children despite that knowledge. .

Kiesle was convicted in 2004 of sexually abusing a child, released from prison in 2009 and lives in Walnut Creek, according to the California Megan’s Law website.

He was also convicted in 1978 of sexually abusing children at Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Union City, but was allowed to return to work while on probation, Bartko’s lawyers said.

Kiesle left the priesthood in 1981, but returned to St. Joseph’s in 1988 as a volunteer youth minister, Bartko’s lawyers said.

He is listed as “credibly accused clergy” on the diocese’s website, which says he was removed from office in 1978 and “secularized” in 1987.

Bartko, who wrote a book about his abuse and subsequent struggles titled “Boy in the mirror», Continued the diocese in 2020 but died at the age of 54, only three days after the announcement of his trial.

Bartko’s lawyers said in a press release this week:

The cause of death was cirrhosis of the liver, the result of decades of drinking alcohol to cope with the trauma of her childhood. .. Jim’s first drink came at the age of 7, offered by Fr. Stephen Kiesle as a way to make Jim more vulnerable to Fr. Kiesle’s sexual advances.

The new law, SB447, came into effect on January 1 and allows families of victims who died of childhood sexual abuse and other crimes to sue for non-economic damages – or “pain and suffering” – on their behalf.

Under the previous law, these claims usually died when the victims died.

Bartko’s attorney, Rick Simons, said:

Now, no matter what they die of, the case goes on whatever the cause. … It also means that the profit of delaying this business and keeping it a secret until late in life, the profit of making as many moves and delaying tactics as possible in the hope that people will die is taken out of the equation. .

A spokesperson for the diocese said Monday they had yet to receive a complaint and declined to comment.

A lawyer for Kiesle, who is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, declined to comment, saying he has yet to see the complaint.