Prosecutor Suggests Archdiocese Might Help Accused Priest Flee

To the apparent dismay of a judge, a Ventura County prosecutor claimed in court Wednesday that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles might finance the possible flight of a retired Roman Catholic priest charged with child molestation.

Told later about the allegation, a spokesman for Cardinal Roger Mahony called it “reprehensible” and demanded an apology.

The scenario surfaced at a bail hearing for Father Carl Sutphin, 70, who was arrested in Ventura last week on charges that he had sexually abused four boys in the 1970s.

Arguing for increased bail, Deputy Dist. Atty. Doug Ridley pointed out that Sutphin had lived with the cardinal and other priests in a Los Angeles chancery during his final years as a priest. Earlier in his career, he had worked at St. Mary Magdalen Church in Camarillo and as a chaplain at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard.

“He’s a friend of Cardinal Mahony,” Ridley contended, saying that the connection could make him a flight risk through potential access to church funds.

The assertion brought a question from Superior Court Judge James Cloninger.

“You’re suggesting that the church would help him flee and secrete him from law enforcement?” the judge asked.

Ridley confirmed the judge’s impression, arguing that the church “hasn’t shown a good-faith effort to help law enforcement” in the case.

Later in the hearing, Cloninger said the prosecutor had offered “no evidence that the church would aid [Sutphin] in becoming a fugitive.”

The charge angered archdiocese spokesman Tod Tamberg.

“The church’s policy is not to post bail on these kinds of cases and that should be proof enough of Cardinal Mahony’s commitment to the justice system,” he said.

To suggest that Mahony might engage in criminal behavior to help Sutphin “is completely irresponsible and deserves an apology,” Tamberg said.

Sutphin has been held in Ventura County Jail since his arrest Friday, unable to raise his $100,000 bail. He also is hard-pressed for money to pay a private attorney, according to Don Steier, a Los Angeles lawyer defending Sutphin in a suit lodged by two of his alleged victims.

On Wednesday, the attorney for the plaintiffs in that suit, Jeffrey R. Anderson of St. Paul, Minn., called the accusation against Mahony “a bold and courageous statement.”

A number of abusive priests in the Los Angeles archdiocese “have been allowed to operate for one reason: They’re colleagues and close associates of the cardinal and he has protected them for two decades,” Anderson contended.

Cloninger turned down the prosecution’s bid to increase Sutphin’s bail to $500,000 but did raise it to $200,000.