Ex-Youth Pastor Drops Suit Over Recording
A former Sierra Madre resident accused of molesting a teen-age boy when he was youth pastor at a Burbank church has withdrawn a suit against the church’s rector.
David Rickard, 40, former youth pastor at St. Jude’s Church in Burbank, withdrew the suit filed against the Rev. Michael T. Flynn for tape-recording what Rickard said was a religious confession in 1987.
Rickard’s three trials for allegedly molesting the boy ended in hung juries. The tape-recording, which Flynn maintained was merely a conversation, contained references to the teen-ager.
Rickard, who now lives in Morro Bay, claimed that the Episcopal priest violated his privacy and the confidentiality of the confessional rite.
Judge Thomas J. Murphy initially placed a gag order on the case to prevent public release of the tape. But Murphy ruled April 12 that the tape should be released in order to assess if Rickard had been damaged by it. Rickard last week decided to withdraw the suit rather than have the tape publicly released.
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